Hungry Ghost

Edition of 26.
Working in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp and John Cage, conceptual artist William Anastasi began in the 1960s to create paintings, sculptures, photographs, and drawings relying on chance procedures and other non-visual principles. Untitled (Subway Drawing to Larry Weiner) belongs to a major series of blind drawings--i.e., executed without looking at the sheet of paper--made while riding the subway beginning in 1977. Sitting with a drawing board on his lap and holding a pencil in each hand, Anastasi records the movement and vibration of the train on the sheet, somewhat as would a seismograph. The resulting drawing shows a vibrant linear network with a concentration of marks where the artist's hands were most stable. An inscription indicates that the drawing was made on the way to visit fellow conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner.