Ruth Asawa

Lot #9
Cineraria (P.018-III), 1979
Screenprint on Fabriano paper 
16 x 21 in.
Edition 14/175
Printed by Valerie Jacobs
Signed, titled, dated, numbered, and Asawa chop lower recto
Courtesy of the Estate of Ruth Asawa and David Zwirner

About the Artwork

American artist, educator, and arts activist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) is known for her extensive body of wire sculptures that challenge conventional notions of material and form through their emphasis on lightness and transparency. Born in rural California, Asawa began to make art while detained in internment camps for Japanese Americans at Santa Anita, California, and Rohwer, Arkansas, where she was sent with her family in 1942–43. Following her release, she enrolled in Milwaukee State Teachers College, eventually making her way to Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1946, then known for its progressive pedagogical methods and avant-garde aesthetic milieu. Asawa's time at Black Mountain proved formative in her development as an artist; she was influenced in particular by her teachers Josef Albers and Buckminster Fuller. For more than 60 years, she participated in San Francisco’s civic life, and left an extensive body of work that includes prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, and public commissions. Asawa printed this image in three different colors: blue (P.018-I), mauve (P.018-II), and pale pink (P.018-III). This hand silk-screened print was printed by Valerie Jacobs.

Retail Value: $4,000