An expanded edition of the definitive book on Ruth Asawa's fascinating
life and her lasting contributions to American art.
The work of American artist Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) is brought into
brilliant focus in this definitive book, originally published to
accompany the first complete retrospective of Asawa's career, organized
by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 2006. This new edition
features an expanded collection of essays and a detailed illustrated
chronology that explore Asawa's fascinating life and her lasting
contributions to American art. Beginning with her earliest
works--drawings and paintings created in the 1940s while she was
studying at Black Mountain College--this beautiful volume traces Asawa's
flourishing career in San Francisco and her trajectory as a pioneering
modernist sculptor who is recognized internationally for her innovative
wire sculptures, public commissions, and activism on behalf of public
arts education.
Through her lifelong experimentations with wire, especially its capacity
to balance open and closed forms, Asawa invented a powerful vocabulary
that contributed a unique perspective to the field of twentieth-century
abstract sculpture. Working in a variety of nontraditional media, Asawa
performed a series of remarkable metamorphoses, leading viewers into a
deeper awareness of natural forms by revealing their structural
properties. Through her art, Asawa transfigured the commonplace into
metaphors for life processes themselves. The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa
establishes the importance of Asawa's work within a larger cultural
context of artists who redefined art as a way of thinking and acting in
the world, rather than as merely a stylistic practice.
This updated edition includes a new introduction and more than fifty new
images, as well as original essays that reflect on the impact of
American political history on Asawa's artistic vision, her experience
with printmaking, and her friendship with photographer Imogen
Cunningham. Contributors include Susan Ehrens, Mary Emma Harris, Karin
Higa, Jacqueline Hoefer, Emily K. Doman Jennings, Paul J. Karlstrom,
John Kreidler, Susan Stauter, Colleen Terry, and Sally B. Woodbridge.
Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(FAMSF).
