August 27, 2013

In Remembrance of Artist Ruth Asawa

San Francisco Artist Ruth Asawa died at her home on August 6.  She was 87.

 http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-ruth-asawa-20130808,0,3036563.story

http://www.npr.org/ruth asawa

Ruth was a student at Black Mountain college from 1946 - 1949 and she studied under Josef Albers.
In the 1950's her use of wire combined with looping was considered very daring and a new form of experimentation with materials.
"I was interested in ... 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 an go anywhere." Ruth Asawa, The sculpture of Ruth Asawa, Contours in Air, University of California Press
    
1954 Life Magazine Feature, photograph by Nat Farbman


1967, bronze wire, 12 x 68 x 68 in.
1950's printed cork ends, ink on paper