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Ruth Asawa

Retrospective
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Brief Description
A landmark survey of the wide-ranging practice of one of the twentieth century's most innovative artists Best known for her sinuous looped-wire sculptures, Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) used everyday materials to create endlessly innovative works in a variety of media over her more than six-decade-long career. From... Read More
Format: Hardback
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Published in the occasion of the exhibition of the same title, held at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, April 5-September 2, 2025; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 19, 2025-February 7, 2026; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain march 20-September 13, 2026; Foundation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, October 18, 2026-January 24, 2027.

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A landmark survey of the wide-ranging practice of one of the twentieth century's most innovative artists

Best known for her sinuous looped-wire sculptures, Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) used everyday materials to create endlessly innovative works in a variety of media over her more than six-decade-long career. From her student days at the experimental Black Mountain College in the 1940s through her mature years in her adopted home city of San Francisco, her work spanned a vast array of techniques and styles.

This extensively illustrated volume explores the astonishing expansiveness of Asawa's work. It details her abstract looped-wire sculptures that garnered national attention in the 1950s, as well as her nature-inspired tied-wire pieces, clay and bronze casts, paperfolds, paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and prints. The book delves into how her longtime San Francisco home and garden served as the epicentre of her creative practice. It also highlights the ethos of collaboration and inclusivity that informed her numerous public sculpture commissions and her unwavering dedication to arts advocacy.

Essays and other writings consider Asawa and her work within the context of modern abstract sculpture, through the lens of craft and the materiality of wire, and in relation to her Asian American identity and personal history as a Japanese American who was incarcerated with her family during World War II. Focus texts illuminate the connections between Asawa and key artistic figures such as Josef Albers, Imogen Cunningham, and R. Buckminster Fuller, with whom she maintained enduring relationships.

Published in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(April 5–September 2, 2025)

The Museum of Modern Art, New York
(October 19, 2025–February 7, 2026)

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain
(March 20–September 13, 2026)

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland
(October 18, 2026–January 24, 2027)

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780300278859

Publisher: Yale University Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 25 February 2025

Country: United States

Imprint: Yale University Press

Illustration: 325 color + b-w illus.

Contributors:

  • Edited by Janet Bishop
  • Contributions by Corey Keller
  • Contributions by Marci Kwon
  • Contributions by Isabel Bird
  • Edited by Cara Manes
  • Contributions by Caitlin Haskell
  • Contributions by Charlotte Healy
  • Contributions by Genji Amino
  • Contributions by Anne Anlin Cheng
  • Contributions by Jennie Yoon
  • Contributions by Ruth Ozeki

Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 238.0mm

Height: 324.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 336

Collections

Arts & Culture Non-Fiction

About the Author

Janet Bishop is Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Cara Manes is associate curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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