{"id":2490,"date":"2025-04-18T16:05:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.txtilezine.com\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2025-05-10T08:52:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T08:52:53","slug":"sfmoma-announces-global-debut-of-major-ruth-asawa-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.txtilezine.com\/en\/sfmoma-announces-global-debut-of-major-ruth-asawa-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"SFMOMA ANNOUNCES GLOBAL DEBUT OF MAJOR RUTH ASAWA RETROSPECTIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art<\/strong> (SFMOMA) announces Ruth Asawa: Retrospective<\/em><\/strong>, the first major national and international museum retrospective of the groundbreaking work of Ruth Asawa<\/strong> (1926\u20132013). Premiering at SFMOMA from April 5 through September 2, 2025<\/strong>, this first posthumous retrospective will feature the entire spectrum of the artist\u2019s awe-inspiring practice. Sculpture, drawings, prints, paintings, design objects and archival material from U.S.-based public and private collections will offer an in-depth look at her expansive output and its inspirations, exploring the ways her longtime San Francisco home and garden served as the epicenter of her creative universe, and highlighting the ethos of collaboration and inclusivity that informed her numerous public sculpture commissions and unwavering dedication to arts advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cRuth Asawa: Retrospective<\/em> is deeply aligned with SFMOMA\u2019s vision to be both local and global\u2014presenting Bay Area artists with profound significance that also have the potential to be highly impactful and relevant on an international scale,\u201d said Christopher Bedford, Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA. \u201cThis exhibition provides an opportunity to celebrate the legendary Ruth Asawa, who was both a widely acclaimed artist and a hometown inspiration whose impact can be very much felt today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ruth Asawa: Retrospective<\/em> will feature more than 300 works spanning six decades of the artist\u2019s career, engaging in the full range of materials and techniques that Asawa employed. Her signature looped-wire sculptures will share gallery space with lesser-known works in other mediums that supply valuable insight into the interconnectedness and relentlessly experimental nature of her artistic vision. In addition to Asawa\u2019s own work, the exhibition will include a select number of works by peers and mentors with whom Asawa engaged in creative dialogue including Josef Albers, Imogen Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Ray Johnson, Hazel Larsen Archer, Merry Renk and Marguerite Wildenhain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ruth Asawa: Retrospective<\/em> is an exhibition partnership between SFMOMA and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA) and co-curated by Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA and Cara Manes, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA; with invaluable support from Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt is an immense privilege to present the full range of Ruth Asawa\u2019s life\u2019s work through this retrospective,\u201d said Bishop. \u201cNot only was Asawa an exceptionally talented artist\u2014among the most distinguished sculptors of the 20th century and a major contributor in so many other mediums\u2014but she lived her values in everything she did, modeling the importance of the arts and opening up creative opportunities for others at every turn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Following its presentation at SFMOMA, the exhibition will travel to The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (October 19, 2025\u2013February 7, 2026); Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (March 20\u2013September 13, 2026); and Fondation Beyeler, Riehen\/Basel, Switzerland (October 18, 2026\u2013January 24, 2027), with its tour coinciding with what would have been Asawa\u2019s 100th birthday on January 24, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE EXHIBITION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ruth Asawa: Retrospective<\/em> will unfold across more than 14,000 square feet in the Barbara and Gerson Bakar and Mimi and Peter Haas Galleries on SFMOMA\u2019s fourth floor. Following a loosely chronological arc, a dozen sections will present Asawa\u2019s extensive body of work within the unfolding narrative of her life and career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ruth Asawa was born in Norwalk, California, in 1926 and raised on a farm. In 1942, the teenage Asawa and her family were unjustly displaced to incarceration camps, along with many other people of Japanese descent, in the wake of Executive Order 9066. After the end of World War II, Asawa enrolled in the experimental Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina. The opening gallery of the exhibition will highlight her highly generative studies at the college from 1946 to 1949. With the encouragement of Black Mountain College teachers including Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller and Max Dehn, Asawa flourished, creating drawings with undulating lines, repeating patterns and studies of positive and negative space that would resonate in later work. This gallery also features Asawa\u2019s 1947 trip to Toluca, Mexico, during which she learned a looped-wire technique used for basketry that would prove fundamental to her sculptural practice of the following decade and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1949, Asawa moved from North Carolina to San Francisco\u2014the city she would call home for the rest of her life\u2014and exhibited at SFMOMA (then the San Francisco Museum of Art) for the first time. A gallery devoted to the 1950s in San Francisco will reveal a decade of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tremendous productivity, including the development of the artist\u2019s signature innovation\u2014 hanging looped-wire sculptures with forms within forms and interlocking lobes, no two alike\u2014that she exhibited locally, nationally and internationally. An adjacent gallery will include Asawa\u2019s designs for commercial projects including fabric patterns and wallpaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1962, Asawa received the gift of a desert plant that inspired her next major body of work: tied-wire sculptures, some wall-mounted, some suspended and some displayed directly on the floor. A gallery focused on nature will examine the artist\u2019s deep affinity with the organic world and its relationship to her practice in both two and three dimensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a shift in register from the unfolding of Asawa\u2019s artistic innovations across time, the exhibition will feature a gallery evoking the Noe Valley home and studio that was the hub of the artist\u2019s creative and family life for more than half a century, from the early 1960s until her passing in 2013. This section will reconvene a grouping of wire sculptures of various forms and sizes that Asawa is known to have hung from the rafters in her living room, as well as a selection of the artist\u2019s sketchbooks and examples of her material experiments in clay, copper, electroplating and bronze. Highlights of the space will be Asawa\u2019s original hand- carved redwood doors from the house and works she displayed by other artists, including Josef Albers, Ray Johnson, Peggy Tolk-Watkins and Marguerite Wildenhain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another section spanning several decades will feature the artist\u2019s miniatures: a dozen of her tiniest wire sculptures\u2014the smallest measuring just over one inch in diameter\u2014that will be installed in cases that invite close looking. The continued inspiration of the artist\u2019s garden will be revealed in a final gallery featuring a stunning array of Asawa\u2019s late drawings of plants, bouquets and flowers produced during the 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the retrospective, Asawa\u2019s contemporaneous arts advocacy and public sculpture practice from the 1960s forward will be highlighted. Video, photographs, maquettes and archival materials will illuminate Asawa\u2019s fountains at San Francisco\u2019s Ghirardelli Square (Andrea, 1968); Union Square (San Francisco Fountain, 1973); and Bayside Plaza, Embarcadero (Aurora, 1986), as well as projects connected to Japanese American incarceration in San Jose (Japanese American Internment Memorial, 1990\u201394) and at San Francisco State University (Garden of Remembrance, 2000-02).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CATALOGUE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An extensively illustrated 336-page catalogue published by SFMOMA in association with Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition. Texts on key aspects of Asawa\u2019s art and creative practice contextualize this visual survey. Lead essayists include Anne Anlin Cheng, Janet Bishop, Cara Manes, and Jennie Yoon and Marci Kwon. Additional contributors include Genji Amino, Isabel Bird, Caitlin Haskell, Charlotte Healy, Corey Keller, Ruth Ozeki, Marin Sarv\u00e9-Tarr, Jeffrey Saletnik and Dominika Tylcz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART<\/strong> (151 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94103) is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. Our remarkable collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design and media arts is housed in a LEED Gold-certified building designed by the global architects Sn\u00f8hetta and Mario Botta. In addition to our seven gallery floors, SFMOMA now offers over 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit sfmoma.org or call 415.357.4000 for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announces Ruth Asawa: Retrospective, the first major national and international museum retrospective of the groundbreaking work of Ruth Asawa (1926\u20132013). Premiering at SFMOMA from April 5 through September 2, 2025, this first posthumous retrospective will feature the entire spectrum of the artist\u2019s awe-inspiring practice. Sculpture, drawings, prints, paintings, design objects and archival material from U.S.-based public and private collections will offer an in-depth look at her expansive output and its inspirations, exploring the ways her longtime San Francisco home and garden served as the epicenter of her creative universe, and highlighting the ethos of collaboration and inclusivity that informed her numerous public sculpture commissions and unwavering dedication to arts advocacy. \u201cRuth Asawa: Retrospective is deeply aligned with SFMOMA\u2019s vision to be both local and global\u2014presenting Bay Area artists with profound significance that also have the potential to be highly impactful and relevant on an international scale,\u201d said Christopher Bedford, Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA. \u201cThis exhibition provides an opportunity to celebrate the legendary Ruth Asawa, who was both a widely acclaimed artist and a hometown inspiration whose impact can be very much felt today.\u201d Ruth Asawa: Retrospective will feature more than 300 works spanning six decades of the artist\u2019s career, engaging in the full range of materials and techniques that Asawa employed. Her signature looped-wire sculptures will share gallery space with lesser-known works in other mediums that supply valuable insight into the interconnectedness and relentlessly experimental nature of her artistic vision. In addition to Asawa\u2019s own work, the exhibition will include a select number of works by peers and mentors with whom Asawa engaged in creative dialogue including Josef Albers, Imogen Cunningham, Buckminster Fuller, Ray Johnson, Hazel Larsen Archer, Merry Renk and Marguerite Wildenhain. Ruth Asawa: Retrospective is an exhibition partnership between SFMOMA and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA) and co-curated by Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA and Cara Manes, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA; with invaluable support from Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. \u201cIt is an immense privilege to present the full range of Ruth Asawa\u2019s life\u2019s work through this retrospective,\u201d said Bishop. \u201cNot only was Asawa an exceptionally talented artist\u2014among the most distinguished sculptors of the 20th century and a major contributor in so many other mediums\u2014but she lived her values in everything she did, modeling the importance of the arts and opening up creative opportunities for others at every turn.\u201d Following its presentation at SFMOMA, the exhibition will travel to The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (October 19, 2025\u2013February 7, 2026); Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain (March 20\u2013September 13, 2026); and Fondation Beyeler, Riehen\/Basel, Switzerland (October 18, 2026\u2013January 24, 2027), with its tour coinciding with what would have been Asawa\u2019s 100th birthday on January 24, 2026. THE EXHIBITION Ruth Asawa: Retrospective will unfold across more than 14,000 square feet in the Barbara and Gerson Bakar and Mimi and Peter Haas Galleries on SFMOMA\u2019s fourth floor. Following a loosely chronological arc, a dozen sections will present Asawa\u2019s extensive body of work within the unfolding narrative of her life and career. Ruth Asawa was born in Norwalk, California, in 1926 and raised on a farm. In 1942, the teenage Asawa and her family were unjustly displaced to incarceration camps, along with many other people of Japanese descent, in the wake of Executive Order 9066. After the end of World War II, Asawa enrolled in the experimental Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina. The opening gallery of the exhibition will highlight her highly generative studies at the college from 1946 to 1949. With the encouragement of Black Mountain College teachers including Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller and Max Dehn, Asawa flourished, creating drawings with undulating lines, repeating patterns and studies of positive and negative space that would resonate in later work. This gallery also features Asawa\u2019s 1947 trip to Toluca, Mexico, during which she learned a looped-wire technique used for basketry that would prove fundamental to her sculptural practice of the following decade and beyond. In 1949, Asawa moved from North Carolina to San Francisco\u2014the city she would call home for the rest of her life\u2014and exhibited at SFMOMA (then the San Francisco Museum of Art) for the first time. A gallery devoted to the 1950s in San Francisco will reveal a decade of tremendous productivity, including the development of the artist\u2019s signature innovation\u2014 hanging looped-wire sculptures with forms within forms and interlocking lobes, no two alike\u2014that she exhibited locally, nationally and internationally. An adjacent gallery will include Asawa\u2019s designs for commercial projects including fabric patterns and wallpaper. In 1962, Asawa received the gift of a desert plant that inspired her next major body of work: tied-wire sculptures, some wall-mounted, some suspended and some displayed directly on the floor. A gallery focused on nature will examine the artist\u2019s deep affinity with the organic world and its relationship to her practice in both two and three dimensions. In a shift in register from the unfolding of Asawa\u2019s artistic innovations across time, the exhibition will feature a gallery evoking the Noe Valley home and studio that was the hub of the artist\u2019s creative and family life for more than half a century, from the early 1960s until her passing in 2013. This section will reconvene a grouping of wire sculptures of various forms and sizes that Asawa is known to have hung from the rafters in her living room, as well as a selection of the artist\u2019s sketchbooks and examples of her material experiments in clay, copper, electroplating and bronze. Highlights of the space will be Asawa\u2019s original hand- carved redwood doors from the house and works she displayed by other artists, including Josef Albers, Ray Johnson, Peggy Tolk-Watkins and Marguerite Wildenhain. Another section spanning several decades will feature the artist\u2019s miniatures: a dozen of her tiniest wire sculptures\u2014the smallest measuring just over one inch in diameter\u2014that will be installed in cases that invite close looking. The continued inspiration of the artist\u2019s garden will be revealed in a final gallery featuring a stunning array of Asawa\u2019s late drawings of plants, bouquets and flowers produced during the 1990s and early 2000s. Throughout the retrospective, Asawa\u2019s contemporaneous arts advocacy and public sculpture practice from the 1960s forward will be highlighted. Video, photographs, maquettes and archival materials will illuminate Asawa\u2019s fountains at San Francisco\u2019s Ghirardelli Square (Andrea, 1968); Union Square (San Francisco Fountain, 1973); and Bayside Plaza, Embarcadero (Aurora, 1986), as well as projects connected to Japanese American incarceration in San Jose (Japanese American Internment Memorial, 1990\u201394) and at San Francisco State University (Garden of Remembrance, 2000-02). CATALOGUE An extensively illustrated 336-page catalogue published by SFMOMA in association with Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition. Texts on key aspects of Asawa\u2019s art and creative practice contextualize this visual survey. Lead essayists include Anne Anlin Cheng, Janet Bishop, Cara Manes, and Jennie Yoon and Marci Kwon. Additional contributors include Genji Amino, Isabel Bird, Caitlin Haskell, Charlotte Healy, Corey Keller, Ruth Ozeki, Marin Sarv\u00e9-Tarr, Jeffrey Saletnik and Dominika Tylcz. THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (151 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94103) is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. Our remarkable collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design and media arts is housed in a LEED Gold-certified building designed by the global architects Sn\u00f8hetta and Mario Botta. In addition to our seven gallery floors, SFMOMA now offers over 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to all. Visit sfmoma.org or call 415.357.4000 for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibitions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t