The first retrospective of Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) in Europe impressively demonstrates how the American artist of Japanese descent transformed the simplest materials into fascinating objects, dissolving the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, art and craft, action and contemplation. Asawa's versatile body of work encompasses wire and bronze sculptures, drawings, prints, paintings, and works in public space.

In the late 1940s, she studied at the legendary Black Mountain College under Josef Albers and others, such as Richard Buckminster Fuller and Merce Cunningham. From 1949, she lived in San Francisco, where she began creating an impressive body of work consisting of filigree wire sculptures. Alongside these, she produced multifaceted drawings that stand independently next to the sculptures.

The exhibition vividly illustrates the interplay between all these forms of expression. From the late 1960s onward, she created numerous public commissions such as fountains, murals, and memorials, and was a strong advocate for arts education in the California Bay Area and beyond. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to discover the full breadth of the work of Ruth Asawa, an artist celebrated in the USA, in Europe.

«Ruth Asawa» is founded on an exhibition partnership between the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. This presentation is developed by the Fondation Beyeler.

The exhibition is generously supported by:

Beyeler-Stiftung

Hansjörg Wyss, Wyss Fondation