Ruth Asawa, multiple works, de Young

Beyond the Paint

Transcript Ruth Asawa is somewhat of a legend in San Francisco. Her sculptures, often made collaboratively with local communities, populate street corners, parks and schools. But the de Young museum is where you’ll find the largest collection of her sculptures in the world. Just look at those wired cells cocooning smaller ones, or those radiating out like fireworks frozen in time! Ruth Asawa was an artist who pushed the boundaries of what sculpture could be, but she was also a great educator. Born in 1926, she was subjected to heightened racism after the US government targeted Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Along with her family, she was forcibly removed from their home and sent to a concentration camp. Against the backdrop of the abhorrent conditions of the camps, those who were incarcerated came together to support each other. Adults used their skills to teach the next generation. And this included professional artists, such as the Disney animator Tom Okamoto, who helped instill a love of art in the young Ruth Asawa. You can see where that love of the line came from — it’s almost like her sculptures are a continuous line, in all shapes and sizes. Ruth Asawa went on to train at Black Mountain College, a progressive school which emphasized “learning through doing,” making things with your hands, and saw the likes of math, science, art, and dancing all on an equal level. But it was a trip to Mexico in the late 1940s that really helped Asawa develop her style. Moving to San Francisco in 1949, she set up her studio, and in the ensuing years would loop sculptures at her kitchen table with her six children. Standing among Ruth Asawa’s artwork here at the de Young is like being in a subterranean universe. I feel enraptured by the sculptures and their shadows. And standing on the threshold between the two makes me feel like I am also part of the installation. Asawa’s sculptures look like coral, trees, or a macro view of the cells that live inside our bodies. They shift between hard and soft, strong and vulnerable, as they expand and contract, changing their appearance the more you look at them. This permanent installation at the de Young has been on view since 2005 and was installed under the supervision of Ruth Asawa herself. It’s free to the public, in line with her vision for art for all in this city. Asawa founded the Alvarado School Arts Workshop in 1968, which enabled children of all backgrounds to make art from accessible materials. In 1982, she founded the first public arts school in the city, which was renamed Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in her honor in 2010. And today, Asawa’s teaching philosophies continue to inform the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s free-of-charge school and family programs. Image: Ruth Asawa installation, de Young. Photograph by Henrik Kam ©️ Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Courtesy David Zwirner / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York