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Ruth Asawa - At a Glance

Narrator: Karin Higa, Senior Curator of Art, Japanese American National Museum

Transcription

So, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Ruth Asawa. She was born to Japanese immigrants on a farm in Norwalk here in Southern California. And, she is one of the country’s pioneering modernist sculptors, somebody who invented a radical and innovative sculptural language of abstract wire forms.

Ruth Asawa is considered an artistic treasure in the San Francisco Bay area, but in many sectors of the current world of art, she is being held as a new discovery, somebody to watch. However, Ruth has had a long career and lots of prior recognition. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, her wire sculptures were regularly shown throughout the country. She was the recipient of prestigious art prizes and awards, including prominent commissions and selection as a United States representative to the 1955 Sao Paulo Bienal.

In 1956, the Whitney Museum of American Art acquired a looped wire piece for its permanent collection. In 1960, the de Young Museum held a solo exhibition of her work, followed in the 1970’s by a retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Art, which is now known as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.