Ruth Asawa: All Is Possible

Organized by Helen Molesworth

David Zwirner is pleased to present Ruth Asawa: All Is Possible at the gallery’s 537 West 20th Street location in New York. Organized by Helen Molesworth, this exhibition aims to situate Asawa’s (1926–2013) iconic looped- and tied-wire sculptures in the context of her extraordinary drawings and her lesser known sculptural forms, offering viewers one of the most comprehensive looks at this artist’s work to date. This larger context illuminates an artist in pursuit of form as a means to reshape how we see and perceive the world as well as offering a model for thinking about the avant-garde’s long-held desire to place art and life in a permanently dynamic conversation.

The Estate of Ruth Asawa has been represented by David Zwirner since 2017. The gallery’s inaugural solo exhibition of the artist’s work took place the same year in New York. In 2020, the gallery’s London location presented Ruth Asawa: A Line Can Go Anywhere, which was the first major presentation of the artist’s work outside of the United States. In 2022, Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe will open at Modern Art Oxford, England, and will subsequently travel to the Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Norway.

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Location

537 West 20th Street New York

Dates

November 4—December 18, 2021

Curators

Helen Molesworth

Artist

Ruth Asawa

Press Release

Ruth Asawa: All Is Possible

“The life of the artist-scientist-explorer … is truly the only life worth living. You give me courage—just the word ‘Ruth’ gives me an ‘all is possible’ feeling.”

—Albert Lanier, Asawa’s future husband, in a letter to the artist in 1948

Ruth Asawa, Doors (S.528, Carved Redwood Doors for Asawa-Lanier Home in San Francisco, CA), 1961. Photo by Xavier Lanier. Artwork © 2021 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Letter to Ruth Asawa from Albert Lanier, November 22, 1948. Courtesy Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.

Ruth Asawa and her husband, Albert Lanier, outside the front door of their Noe Valley, San Francisco, home, 1984. Photo © Estate Phiz Mezey. Courtesy Phiz Mezey Trust. Artwork © 2021 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Ruth Asawa’s art and life were deeply intertwined—even her San Francisco home opened with a pair of enormous redwood doors she hand-carved with her children over the summer of 1961. The doors’ intricate, wavelike “meander” pattern recalls the works on paper Asawa made as a student of Josef Albers at Black Mountain College.

“Ruth Asawa is best known for her hanging lobed sculptures and her abstract drawings of meanders made under the influence of Josef Albers at Black Mountain College. Less known are her representational drawings of her beloved family, her ceramic face masks of her rich community in San Francisco, and her near-daily drawings of the plants and flowers from her ample garden.

Many of these works have never been shown publicly and this exhibition aims to recast Asawa as an artist as interested in representation as she was in abstraction, as compelled by the drawn line as the sculptural form, an artist perpetually curious about the intimate relationship between what the eye sees and what the hand can produce.”

—Helen Molesworth, curator and writer

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (LC.012, Wall of Masks), c. 1966–2000 (detail), and Untitled (S.540), 1950s. Photo by Laurence Cuneo. Artwork © 2021 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner

Ruth Asawa casting a child’s face, c. 1970. Photo by Allen Nomura. Courtesy Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.

Asawa cast the faces of hundreds of people within her community and kept a twenty-five-pound bag of plaster of Paris in her kitchen for this purpose.

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (MI.170, Blueprint of BMC Meander (BMC.73)), n.d.

Blueprint

22 x 16 1/2 inches (55.9 x 41.9 cm)
Framed: 27 3/4 x 22 1/8 inches (70.5 x 56.2 cm)

“Asawa’s aesthetic philosophy reflects a synthesis of her personal and professional histories, which, like the meander design, were in many ways intertwined.”

—Tamara H. Schenkenberg, curator, Pulitzer Arts Foundation

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (BMC.129, In and Out), c.1948-1949

Oil on paper on board

7 x 19 inches (17.8 x 48.3 cm)
Framed: 12 x 24 inches (30.5 x 61 cm)

Asawa’s undulating “meander” pattern, created with a spiraling line, suggests a field of fluctuating positive and negative forms akin to the interplay of inside and outside that the artist would later conjure in her “continuous” looped-wire sculptures.

Installation view, Ruth Asawa: All Is Possible, David Zwirner, New York, 2021

“I was interested in [wire] because of the economy of a line, making something in space, enclosing it without blocking it out. It’s still transparent. I realized that if I was going to make these forms, which interlock and interweave, it can only be done with a line because a line can go anywhere.”

—Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.237, Hanging Six-Lobed, Interlocking Continuous Form), c. 1958

Hanging sculpture—enameled copper and brass wire

72 x 15 x 15 inches (182.9 x 38.1 x 38.1 cm)

Asawa’s impact on her community was profound. The communal living that she knew from her childhood on a farm and her experiences at Black Mountain College made Asawa value and acknowledge community involvement as an important aspect of her public art.

Her six-lobed continuous form Untitled (S.237) (c. 1958) was originally owned by Mae Lee, Asawa’s friend, neighbor, and sometimes assistant who helped her with a number of her public commissions, working alongside Asawa’s family and community volunteers.

Ruth Asawa with daughter Aiko and assistant Mae Lee at Andrea, her fountain in Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco, 1968. Courtesy Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.169, Hanging Single-Lobed, Three-Layer Continuous Form within a Form), c. 1958

Hanging sculpture—brass wire

12 x 17 x 17 inches (30.5 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm)

The rafters of Ruth Asawa’s home were filled with her wire sculptures and the artist would sit beneath them as she worked. Living room of the Asawa-Lanier home, 1995. Photo © Laurence Cuneo. Artwork © 2021 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner

“Her creative genius endowed her with the ability to repurpose whatever she has experienced. In her original synthesis of form, process, and transparency, Asawa has created a diverse body of work that challenges the historical definition of sculpture. Whatever threatened to block her progress instead helped her to become an artist without peer.”

—John Yau, poet and art critic

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.633(a-c), Trio of Hanging Reversible, Open-Window Form Sculptures), c. 1956

Hanging sculpture—sterling silver wire

Set of three (3) sculptures
Sculpture A: 28 x 7 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches (71.1 x 18.4 x 18.4 cm)
Sculpture B: 21 x 6 x 6 inches (53.3 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm)
Sculpture C: 15 1/2 x 6 1/4 x 6 inches (39.4 x 15.9 x 15.2 cm)

“Because I had the children, I chose to have my studio in my home. I wanted them to understand my work and learn how to work.”

—Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.055, Hanging Asymmetrical Nine Interlocking Bubbles), c. 1955

Hanging sculpture—galvanized steel, enameled copper, and brass wire

30 x 25 x 16 inches (76.2 x 63.5 x 40.6 cm)

“We always saw her making art, it was part of her everyday existence. I never thought of her making art as a separate activity. To us, she wasn’t working. We didn’t have to be quiet so she could concentrate. Her art-making space was always in our house.”

—Aiko Cuneo, Asawa’s daughter

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.302, Hanging Two-Section, Open-Window Form), c. 1954

Hanging sculpture—brass wire

71 x 15 x 15 inches (180.3 x 38.1 x 38.1 cm)

An excerpt from Ruth Asawa: Of Forms and Growth, directed by Robert Snyder, 1978. © Masters and Masterworks Productions, Inc.

Asawa often made her looped-wire sculptures while sitting at her kitchen table or looking after her children. Her home in San Francisco’s Noe Valley had an eighteen-foot vaulted ceiling where looped- and tied-wire sculptures hung from the rafters.

Ruth Asawa

Addie L. Lanier (FF.033, Addie Laurie Lanier Sleeping Underneath a Large Quilt), c. 1962 - 1963

Pen and black ink and graphite pencil on paper

13 3/4 x 17 inches (34.9 x 43.2 cm)
Framed: 18 3/4 x 21 7/8 inches (47.6 x 53.3 cm)

Asawa had a near-constant devotion to creative pursuits and a distinct way of seeing the world around her, evidenced by her lesser-known drawings of the minutiae of everyday life. Her portrayals of sleeping children, garden plants, and cane and wicker chairs—as well as the ceramic masks of her friends and many visitors to her home—provide an intimate glimpse into the day to day.

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (FF.1114, Albert Lanier Sleeping), 1970

Graphite pencil on paper

8 x 11 inches (21 x 27.9 cm)
Framed: 13 x 15 7/8 inches (33 x 40.3 cm)

Ruth Asawa with Aiko and Xavier, c. 1951. Photograph © Imogen Cunningham Trust

Asawa drew every day, while watching her children, attending public meetings as an activist, observing her garden, and often late into the night. Her home was filled with impromptu sketches, whether a drawing on a paper towel made while attending a meeting at the School of the Arts, or a rose drawn on a brown paper bag.

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (MI.066, Chair with Double Looped Back), c. 1950 - 1959

Pen and brown ink on vellum

23 1/4 x 18 3/4 inches (59.1 x 47.6 cm)
Framed: 28 1/4 x 24 inches (71.8 x 61 cm)

“If we think about Asawa’s early sculptures in concert with her history of making casts of her friends’ and family’s faces and we combine that with her work to bring artists into the San Francisco public schools, can we connect the dots of her concerns as being deeply immersed in the idea that art and life are deeply intertwined, which would in turn allow us to see her as interested in repetition and difference both as a modernist trope and as a structuring feature of being the mother of six children, who by their very existence and actuality are a living embodiment of the repetition and difference enabled by DNA?”

—Helen Molesworth

An excerpt from Ruth Asawa: Of Forms and Growth, directed by Robert Snyder, 1978. © Masters and Masterworks Productions, Inc.

Asawa was raised on a farm in Norwalk, California, and had a lifelong love of observing plants and nature, which she often drew from life. She also loved gardening and helped promote community gardening in San Francisco, setting up programs for children, schools, and communities.

Ruth Asawa watering her vegetable garden at her Noe Valley home, c. 1976. Photo © Philip Chan. Courtesy Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.

“My curiosity was aroused by the idea of giving structural form to the images in my drawings. These forms come from observing plants, the spiral shell of a snail, seeing light through insect wings, watching spiders repair their webs in the early morning, and seeing the sun through the droplets of water suspended from the tips of pine needles while watering my garden.”

—Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa

Hydrangea (WC.273, Hydrangea Leaves), 1984

Graphite pencil and watercolor paint on watercolor paper

22 1/4 x 30 inches (56.5 x 76.2 cm)
Framed: 27 3/8 x 35 1/8 inches (69.5 x 89.2 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.043, Hanging Tied-Wire, Cubed Open-Center, Multi-Branched Form Based on Nature), c. 1994

Hanging sculpture—bronze wire with green patina

32 x 32 x 32 inches (81.3 x 81.3 x 81.3 cm)

“Our first identity was always to the arts community. When I think of my childhood, I think of my parents’ friends, who were always artists, architects, draftsmen, gardeners, and their kids.”

—Addie Lanier, Asawa’s daughter

Ruth Asawa with schoolchildren in the garden of her Noe Valley home, c. 1976. Photo by Laurence Cuneo. Courtesy Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.294, Bouquet), n.d.

Pen and brown ink on watercolor paper

29 3/4 x 41 3/4 inches (75.6 x 106 cm)
Framed: 35 x 47 1/4 inches (88.9 x 120 cm)

“Doing is living. That is all that matters.”

—Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa drawing flowers on the deck of her Noe Valley home. Photo © Bob Turner. Courtesy Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.

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Ruth Asawa

Untitled (BMC.129, In and Out), c.1948-1949

Oil on paper on board

7 x 19 inches (17.8 x 48.3 cm)
Framed: 12 x 24 inches (30.5 x 61 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (SF.003, Undulating Parallelograms), c. 1951-1952

Ink and gouache on board

27 x 27 inches (68.6 x 68.6 cm)
Framed: 33 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches (85.1 x 85.1 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.237, Hanging Six-Lobed, Interlocking Continuous Form), c. 1958

Hanging sculpture—enameled copper and brass wire

72 x 15 x 15 inches (182.9 x 38.1 x 38.1 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (SD.264, Looped-Wire Five-Lobed Sculpture Drawing), 1957

Ink and colored pencil on brown paper

48 x 28 inches (121.9 x 71.1 cm)
Framed: 53 5/8 x 34 1/8 inches (136.2 x 86.7 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (MI.123, Rocking Chair), c. 1968

Pen and black ink on paper

34 x 22 inches (86.4 x 55.9 cm)
Framed: 39 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches (99.7 x 69.2 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (MI.066, Chair with Double Looped Back), c. 1950 - 1959

Pen and brown ink on vellum

23 1/4 x 18 3/4 inches (59.1 x 47.6 cm)
Framed: 28 1/4 x 24 inches (71.8 x 61 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (MI.153, Seven Thonet Style Bentwood Chairs), c. 1950-1959

Pen and black ink on heavy manilla paper

42 x 60 inches (106.7 x 152.4 cm)
Framed: 47 3/8 x 67 1/2 inches (120.3 x 171.4 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.538, Four Chrysanthemum Stems), 1990

Dip pen and black ink on paper

23 x 35 inches (58.4 x 88.9 cm)
Framed: 28 1/4 x 40 1/4 inches (71.8 x 102.2 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.268, Chrysanthemums), c. 1960-1969

Brown and green ink on technical paper

18 x 12 inches (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
Framed: 22 7/8 x 16 7/8 inches (58.1 x 42.9 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (WC.187, Two Watermelons), c. 1960s

Pen, brush, and green ink on technical paper

20 x 30 inches (50.8 x 76.2 cm)
Framed: 25 x 35 inches (63.5 x 88.9 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.840, Succulent), 1998

Pen and black ink on colored charcoal paper

19 3/4 x 13 1/2 inches (50.2 x 34.3 cm)
Framed: 24 5/8 x 18 1/2 inches (62.5 x 47 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.1059, Succulent in Pot), n.d.

Pen, black ink, and graphite pencil on paper

12 x 8 1/2 inches (30.5 x 21.6 cm)
Framed: 16 3/4 x 13 3/8 inches (42.5 x 34.0 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.825, John Elsesser's Leek), 1976

Pen and black ink on technical paper

40 x 18 inches (101.6 x 45.7 cm)
Framed: 45 1/4 x 24 3/8 inches (114.9 x 61.9 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Hydrangea (WC.273, Hydrangea Leaves), 1984

Graphite pencil and watercolor paint on watercolor paper

22 1/4 x 30 inches (56.5 x 76.2 cm)
Framed: 27 3/8 x 35 1/8 inches (69.5 x 89.2 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.325, Leaf 2), n.d.

Pen and black ink on paper

11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.9 x 21.6 cm)
Framed: 15 7/8 x 13 3/8 inches (40.3 x 34 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.055, Hanging Asymmetrical Nine Interlocking Bubbles), c. 1955

Hanging sculpture—galvanized steel, enameled copper, and brass wire

30 x 25 x 16 inches (76.2 x 63.5 x 40.6 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.643, Hanging Seven-Lobed, Multilayered Interlocking Continuous Form), c. 1956

Hanging sculpture—brass and steel wire

79 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches (200.7 x 26.7 x 26.7 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PT.133, Five Plane Trees with Moon), c. 1964

Brush and colored ink on rice paper

12 1/2 x 52 3/8 inches (31.8 x 133 cm)
Framed: 20 x 59 5/8 inches (50.8 x 151.4 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (MI.170, Blueprint of BMC Meander (BMC.73)), n.d.

Blueprint

22 x 16 1/2 inches (55.9 x 41.9 cm)
Framed: 27 3/4 x 22 1/8 inches (70.5 x 56.2 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (PF.263, Chrysanthemum), 1978

Pen and green ink on technical paper

17 1/2 x 18 1/4 inches (44.5 x 46.4 cm)
Framed: 22 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches (57.8 x 59.7 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Adam's Foxglove Mother's Day (PF.846), 1993

Pen and black ink on watercolor paper

22 1/4 x 16 inches (56.5 x 40.6 cm)
Framed: 27 1/4 x 21 1/8 inches (69.2 x 53.7 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (P.022-I, Chrysanthemum), 1974

Stencil duplicate in black ink on technical paper

15 x 10 inches (38.1 x 25.4 cm)
Framed: 20 x 15 inches (50.8 x 38.1 cm)

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.633(a-c), Trio of Hanging Reversible, Open-Window Form Sculptures), c. 1956

Hanging sculpture—sterling silver wire

Ruth Asawa

Untitled (S.302, Hanging Two-Section, Open-Window Form), c. 1954

Hanging sculpture—brass wire

71 x 15 x 15 inches (180.3 x 38.1 x 38.1 cm)

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