Ruth Asawa Through Line

This book explores Ruth Asawa's drawing practice, showcasing its significance throughout her career. It includes essays, reproductions, and an overview of her artistic journey. The exhibition will be held at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Menil Collection.

Format: Hardback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 05 September 2023
Publisher: Yale University Press

A groundbreaking exploration into the profound role of drawing in the multifaceted art of Ruth Asawa (1926–2013), renowned for her looped-wire sculptures. This captivating exhibition catalog, hailed by critics as "a revelatory exhibition" and "a fine exhibition catalog," delves into the intricate connections between Asawa's artistic practices and her unwavering dedication to drawing.

Asawa, an inveterate drawer, filled countless sketchbooks throughout her career, considering drawing to be an integral component of her sculpture. This comprehensive volume, the first to examine the significance of drawing in Asawa's oeuvre, presents a series of essays that explore the diverse aesthetic approaches she employed across materials and techniques. The essays also shed light on how Asawa's drawing intertwined with the vibrant Bay Area arts community and her significant contributions to public education as a teacher and organizer. Moreover, they examine the profound influence of Josef Albers's pedagogy, which Asawa embraced throughout her life, and its enduring impact on her artistic practice.

Spanning her artistic journey from her early formal art lessons in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II to her time at Black Mountain College and beyond, this comprehensive overview of Asawa's drawings showcases over one hundred works, many of which have never been published before. These remarkable artworks are organized into eight thematic sections that transcend time, reflecting an art-making practice that was more circular or cyclical than linear.

Distributed for the esteemed Menil Collection and the Whitney Museum of American Art, this exhibition offers a captivating glimpse into the artistic brilliance of Ruth Asawa. The exhibition will be on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from September 16, 2023, to January 15, 2024, followed by a subsequent showing at the Menil Collection in Houston from March 22 to July 21, 2024.

Dimension: 279 x 241 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300273281