Archives of American Art Releases New Video Featuring Ruth Asawa

A video produced by the Archives of American Art drawing on a 2002 interview with Ruth Asawa has been published by ARTnews. Directed by Wes Miller, the video pairs excerpts from the conversation with the then seventy-six-year-old Asawa, which also features her husband, Albert Lanier, and the archive’s Mark Johnson and Paul Karlstrom, with imagery including archival photographs of the artist and the wire sculptures for which she is best known. Asawa is heard discussing the question of modernism and her studies at Black Mountain College during the 1940s, among other topics.

Ruth Asawa: Life’s Work, a major exhibition featuring some sixty sculptural works from throughout the artist’s career as well as twenty paintings, drawings, and collages, some of which date back to her time at Black Mountain College, is on view at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis through February 16, 2019. In a review of the exhibition for The Washington Post, Sebastian Smee asked, “Is this the most beautiful show of the year?”

An immersive monograph on the artist and her work is available from David Zwirner Books.

Image: Installation view, Ruth Asawa: Life’s Work, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, 2018. © Estate of Ruth Asawa. Courtesy Estate of Ruth Asawa. Photo © Alise O’Brien Photography