The traces of a walk

William Anastasi moved to New York in the early 1960s, bringing with him a way of seeing that favored the quiet mechanics of existence over the creation of objects. Born in Philadelphia, his practice grew out of an interest in how we record what happens around us. He did not look for grand subjects. Instead, he looked at the lines on a gallery wall or the movement of a body through space. His work often functioned as a way to map the relationship between the human condition and the tools used to document it.

In 1969, he experimented with a method called Pocket Drawings. He folded a single sheet of paper into eight small rectangles, each the size of a back trouser pocket. As he walked, he held a tiny, soft pencil against the paper inside the cramped space of his pocket. The marks left on the unfolded sheet were a graph of his physical activity. This process turned the simple act of walking into a method of recording, making the movement itself the source of the work.

Lines and spaces

His interest in the everyday led to works that blurred the line between art and the environment. In 1967, he produced a drawing titled Reading a Line on a wall, which focused on the specific details of a Virginia Dwan Gallery wall, including its air vents, electrical sockets, and moulding. The work was about the act of reading a space as much as it was about the marks on paper. He approached the gallery surface not as a blank void, but as a textured reality to be noted.

This focus on the immediate surroundings extended into his larger installations and sound works. His series Subway Drawings captured the rhythms of the city through a more direct engagement with public transit. Much of his work sought to explore meditation and the experience of the present moment. He was influenced by the theoretical approaches of Marcel Duchamp and shared a professional bond with John Cage, whose approach to chance and sound resonated with Anastasi’s own interest in recording mechanisms.

Recognition and presence

The marks left by his practice found their way into several permanent collections. His work is held at:

• The Museum of Modern Art (New York)
• Guggenheim Museum (New York)
• Walker Art Center (Minneapolis)
• National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)
• Art Institute of Chicago

In 2010, he received The John Cage Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His career remained rooted in the exploration of how we perceive and register our lives through visual art, sound, and the simple, repetitive motions of daily life.