Ruth Asawa

Gift to the artist to Imogen Cunningham
By descent to the previous owner owner
Private Collection, California

San Francisco Museum of Art, Four Artist-Craftsmen: Merry Renk, Jeweler; Ida Dean, Weaver; Marguerite Wildenhain, Potter; and Ruth Asawa, Sculptor, April - May 1954  

This work is in very good condition overall. All of the wires are fully intact, and all of the elements are stable. The bulbous shapes are not completely symmetrical due to the artist's choice of medium; however, a professional conservator can adjust the wires as needed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

At age 16, Ruth Asawa and her family were placed in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans,  even though her father had been in American for 40 years. Among her fellow internees were Japanese artists who had been working for the Walt Disney Studios.  In their abundant idle hours, they gave Ruth her first lessons in art. Having graduated a few years later as a teacher, Ruth was still disqualified from taking up a position because of her nationality. Instead, she enrolled as an art student in Black Mountain College. This was a most fortunate turn in her destiny, for teaching there was Josef Albers whose interest in structural form had a huge impact on her development.  "No one had asked me to think before," she recalled, many years later,"I felt so simple-minded.  I was a country girl, and they were asking you to express yourself."

As well as formal discipline, the collegiate spirit that suffused the students and faculty of Black Mountain College (which was modeled after the Bauhaus) impressed a gregarious nature on Ruth which would define her personality and motivations.  She met her future husband, Albert Lanier, at Black Mountain and they raised six children together.

The structural approach learned from Albers made Ruth shift her creative emphasis towards sculpture; she developed a technique of crocheting wire to make hanging forms of exquisitely simple design.  According to her daughter Aiko, this technique was inspired by baskets she had seen while on a visit to Mexico City.  She soon came to annex this technique and take ownership of it.  Though there are several trajectories to her creativity, these hanging crocheted sculptures, with their ingenious structural designs and accomplished craftsmanship, constitute the basis of her renown.

Among the wide circle of friends she and her family cultivated, one of the most enduring was with the photographer Imogen Cunningham.   Though they never collaborated on an art project, Ruth frequently drew Imogen and Imogen photographed Ruth many times.  The two women had a lot in common, chiefly the modern woman's dilemma of balancing her career and her responsibilities to her family.   According to Aiko, "they were two women who decided they were going to have children and be artists, and make both of those work together."  Among the photographs Imogen took of Ruth, the most affecting shows Ruth in her studio surrounded by her sculptures while her children play on the floor – proof that balance can be achieved.