Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa: Untitled
2026-05-09 11:00 - 2026-06-20 16:00 UTC | Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Co-curated by Asawa’s daughters Aiko Cuneo and Addie Lanier, this inaugural exhibition includes rarely exhibited looped- and tied-wire sculptures for which she is best-known, cast artworks, paperfolds, watercolors, and drawings on paper and copper foil.
The title reflects a defining aspect of Asawa’s practice: except in a few cases, she never bothered to title her work. She was more interested in the creation of it than in naming it.
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Ruth Asawa: Retrospective
2026-10-18 10:00 - 2027-01-10 18:00 | Foundation Beyeler, Baselstrasse 101, 4125, Riehen
The first European retrospective dedicated to Ruth Asawa (1926–2013), the influential American artist of Japanese descent, offers an extraordinary opportunity to experience the ways in which Asawa transformed the simplest of materials into fascinating object, blurring the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, art and craft, action and contemplation. Asawa’s multi-facetted and diverse oeuvre features wire and bronze sculptures, drawings, prints, paintings, and public commissions. In the late 1940s, she studied at the legendary Black Mountain College under Josef Albers and others such as Buckminster Fuller and Merce Cunningham. From 1949, Asawa lived in San Francisco, where she produced a body of work ranging from variations of abstract looped-wire sculptures to calligraphic ink drawings, which stand as an equally vital and autonomous part of her practice. Community engagement was central to Asawa’s life and work. From the late 1960s, Asawa carried out numerous public commissions such as fountains, murals and memorials. She also played a significant role in promoting art education in California’s Bay Area and beyond. While Ruth Asawa is widely celebrated in the United States, this exhibition marks a rare and overdue opportunity for European audiences to encounter the full depth and richness of her artistic legacy.
Ruth Asawa is an exhibition partnership between the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. This presentation was developed by the Fondation Beyeler.
