Noguchi to Asawa: Designing Postwar America
Six Japanese American artists shaped the look of modern America.
Six Japanese American artists shaped the look of modern America.
This collection investigates art-making as rooted in notions of home and belonging for artists across diverse backgrounds and generations, bringing together five female-identifying artists who work across multiple mediums, including installation, photography, and sculpture.
This exhibition brings together twenty life cast masks of Asawa’s family members along with their favorite Asawa artwork and a description of why they chose it. The selections range from the playful and unexpected--including a surfboard, jewelry, and a giant Celastic head--to rarely seen sketchbooks, paintings, and wire sculptures, offering a glimpse into the many ways Asawa’s work continues to resonate with those closest to her.
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.