At 50, he quit engineering to become an artist; 25 years later, Canadians met him on Artspots
CBC Arts | Posted: January 4, 2018 9:46 PM | Last Updated: January 4, 2018
Bill Anhang's story continues — the Montreal light artist featured in 2006 is the star of a recent CBC doc
Name: Bill Anhang
Lives and works: Montreal
Artspots appearance: 2006
The story: For Bill Anhang, art isn't a hobby — it's a spiritual calling.
A former electrical engineer, Anhang quit his job at 50 and threw himself into art. And when the Artspots team visited his Montreal apartment — or Billsville, as he calls it — he'd been at it for 25 years, and the space was stuffed, floor to ceiling, with the results of his non-stop creative output.
I was designated an artist by a guru. He said, 'Bill, you're an artist.' I said [...] 'Can I do something, you know, profitable? - Bill Anhang on Artspots
Anhang's signature is electric light. He might weave a grid of LEDs behind a painting of a fractal pattern, for instance.
And as he explains in the Artspots video, details like that have a spiritual message. They're reminders that God is "still there and on our side."
If it looks familiar...
Just last year, CBC Short Docs aired a film about Anhang, and filmmakers Maisie Jacobson and Josh Eisen caught up with the artist, who's now 86, at Billsville — which is even more crammed than ever.
The film introduces some of Anhang's friends, family and collaborators, but the main event is a trip to New York City, where a selection of his work was appearing at the American Folk Art Museum.
Want to catch up on his story?