Ruth Asawa

The first European retrospective dedicated to Ruth Asawa (1926–2013), the influential American artist of Japanese descent, offers an extraordinary opportunity to experience the ways in which Asawa transformed the simplest of materials into fascinating object, blurring the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, art and craft, action and contemplation. Asawa’s multi-facetted and diverse oeuvre features wire and bronze sculptures, drawings, prints, paintings, and public commissions. In the late 1940s, she studied at the legendary Black Mountain College under Josef Albers and others such as Buckminster Fuller and Merce Cunningham. From 1949, Asawa lived in San Francisco, where she produced a body of work ranging from variations of abstract looped-wire sculptures to calligraphic ink drawings, which stand as an equally vital and autonomous part of her practice. Community engagement was central to Asawa’s life and work. From the late 1960s, Asawa carried out numerous public commissions such as fountains, murals and memorials. She also played a significant role in promoting art education in California’s Bay Area and beyond. While Ruth Asawa is widely celebrated in the United States, this exhibition marks a rare and overdue opportunity for European audiences to encounter the full depth and richness of her artistic legacy.

«Ruth Asawa» is an exhibition partnership between the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. This presentation was developed by the Fondation Beyeler.