Ruth Asawa
| Ruth Asawa | |
|---|---|
Asawa in 1952
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| Born |
Ruth Aiko Asawa January 24, 1926 Norwalk, California |
| Died | August 6, 2013 (aged 87) San Francisco, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Black Mountain College |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Website | www |
Ruth Aiko Asawa (January 24, 1926 – August 5, 2013) was an American sculptor. Known in San Francisco as the "fountain lady", her work is included in prominent art collections such as those of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She was a driving force behind the creation of the San Francisco School of the Arts, which was renamed the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in 2010 in tribute to her.
Ruth Asawa was born in 1926 in Norwalk, California, one of seven children. Her father operated a truck farm until the Japanese American internment during World War II. The family lived in the assembly center at the Santa Anita racetrack for much of 1942, then at Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas.
Following her graduation from the internment center's high school, she attended Milwaukee State Teachers College, intending to become an art teacher. Unable to get hired for the requisite practice teaching to complete her degree, she left Wisconsin without a degree. (The degree was finally awarded to her in 1998.)
From 1946 to 1949, she studied at Black Mountain College with Josef Albers. Asawa learned to use commonplace materials from Albers, and she began experimenting with wire using a variety of techniques. Like all Black Mountain College students, Asawa took courses across a variety of different art forms, and this interdisciplinary approach helped to shape her artistic practice. She was particularly influenced by the Black Mountain College summer sessions of 1946 and 1948, which featured courses by artist Jacob Lawrence, photography curator and historian Beaumont Newhall, Jean Varda, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, and R. Buckminster Fuller. According to Asawa, the dance courses she took with Merce Cunningham were especially impactful.
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