Ruth Asawa’s Life’s Work

Though celebrated in 1973 with a retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Ruth Asawa was under the art world's radar for many years outside of her native California, and especially San Francisco, where she lived. Asawa has seen growing international attention over the past decade. The revival started with an acclaimed survey of her innovative sculptures at her home city’s De Young Museum in 2006, and was spurred dramatically by representation and a comprehensive 2017 solo exhibition by David Zwirner gallery in New York. Born in rural California in 1929 to Japanese immigrant parents, Asawa is best known for her biomorphic, loop-wire sculptures, inspired by wire egg baskets, which a local craftsman taught her to make while she was teaching children art in Mexico in 1947. She continued to hone her craft, becoming an important creative force in the Bay Area, as an artist and educator, until her death in 2013.

• St. Louis
• USA
• Japan