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Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe

Emma Ridgway, Vibece Salthe

£28.00

A unique look at the visionary artist, educator and activist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013)

Overview

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) is an artist of vital importance, with a growing reputation across the world. Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe, which accompanies the first solo public exhibition of her work in Europe, introduces a new audience to her powerful and genre-defying practice, including her signature hanging sculptures in looped and tied wire, her pioneering work in education inspired by the principles she learnt from Josef Albers and others at Black Mountain College, and her engagement with modernist design.

Focusing on a dynamic and formative period in Asawa’s career between 1945 and 1980, the book grants readers a unique insight into her life and work through a series of in-depth essays, extensive illustrations, archival images, letters and documents. While exploring her legacy from a European perspective, it does not shy away from the discrimination she faced as a Japanese American woman, countered by her self-identification as ‘a citizen of the universe’. Asawa’s revolutionary and inclusive vision of the role art should play in society is perhaps her most important legacy, serving as a potential catalyst for creative thinking in the 21st century.

Product Information

Book Details

Format: Paperback

Size: 28.0 x 23.0 cm

Extent: 208 pp

Publication date: 26 May 2022

ISBN: 9780500025420

Contents List

Director's Foreword

Introduction

A Citizen of the Universe
EMMA RIDGWAY

Art as an approach to living
SIGRUN ÅSEBØ AND VIBECE SALTHE

Camouflaging Asawa
JOHN R. BLAKINGER

Asawa as a Life Long Learner
EMILY PRINGLE

Interviews
FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF RUTH ASAWA
(ALVARADO WORKSHOPS AND ASAWA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS)

TIMELINE
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

About the Author

Emma Ridgway is Chief Curator and Head of Exhibitions at Modern Art Oxford. Vibece Salthe is a Curator at the Stavanger Art Museum, Norway.