Ruth Asawa Through Line | Art & Artists

Sept 16, 2023–Jan 15, 2024

Exhibition works

8 total
Learning to See
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Learning to See

Overlapping leaves in varying shades of orange, dark brown, yellow, blue, and white.
Overlapping leaves in varying shades of orange, dark brown, yellow, blue, and white.

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.68, Stem with Leaves), c. 1948–49. Watercolor on paper, 19 3/4 × 16 in. (50.2 × 40.6 cm). Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; gift of Aiko and Laurence Cuneo. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner. Photograph by Jorge Bachmann. Courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Learning to See

In the summer of 1946, Asawa enrolled at Black Mountain College, an experimental liberal arts school in rural North Carolina. There she studied with avant-garde artists, choreographers, and thinkers, including Josef Albers, Merce Cunningham, and Buckminster Fuller, and felt as though "another world opened up." Through drawing exercises, she explore economy of line and honed her hand-eye coordination, while careful observation of ordinary objects around her—from leaves and thorns to Jell-O molds and Wonder Bread packaging—offered studies in color relationships and the play of positive and negative space.

Albers's coursework in color, painting, and design proved particularly influential, and Asawa credited the Bauhaus artist and educator not only with teaching her how to draw but "how to see." She took his classes multiple times, returning to certain exercises and forms. Repetition determined the cyclical rhythm of her lifelong art practice, and many of the techniques and motifs seen here reappear throughout the exhibition.

Anthropomorphic oval shapes with an open arch over the oval, set against a dark gray background in a mix of blue, white, and pink.
Anthropomorphic oval shapes with an open arch over the oval, set against a dark gray background in a mix of blue, white, and pink.

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.56, Dancers), c. 1948–49. Oil and opaque watercolor on paper, 12 × 19 in. (30.5 × 48.3 cm). Private collection. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.56, Dancers), c. 1948–49

Green, orange, and cream wave-like swirls overlap on a brown background.
Green, orange, and cream wave-like swirls overlap on a brown background.

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.127, Meander in Green, Orange, and Brown), c. 1946–49. Collage of colored papers mounted to brown paper, 17 1/4 × 22 3/8 in. (43.8 × 56.8 cm). Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum; gift of Josef Albers. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner. Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College, BR49.408

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.127, Meander in Green, Orange, and Brown), c. 1946–49

Ink drawings of hands and feet in 12 different positions fill the page in a loose circular shape.
Ink drawings of hands and feet in 12 different positions fill the page in a loose circular shape.

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.123, Studies of Hands and Feet), c. 1946–49. Ink on tracing paper, 18 3/4 × 23 3/4 in. (47.6 × 60.3 cm). Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum; gift of Josef Albers. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner. Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College, BR49.385

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.123, Studies of Hands and Feet), c. 1946–49

Scattered outlines of three's and "S"'s across a cream colored page. Some of the outlines are filled in with blue, black, and red.
Scattered outlines of three's and "S"'s across a cream colored page. Some of the outlines are filled in with blue, black, and red.

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.70, 3’s and S’s), c. 1946–49. Graphite, ink, and watercolor on paper, 17 × 22 in. (43.2 × 55.9 cm). The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, 2007.30.32. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner. Photograph by Tim Nighswander/Imaging4Art

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.70, 3’s and S’s), c. 1946–49

Geometric shapes in varying shades of orange, blue, purple, cream, and gray, characterized by rows of stacked triangles
Geometric shapes in varying shades of orange, blue, purple, cream, and gray, characterized by rows of stacked triangles

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.108, Stacked Triangles), c. 1948–49. Oil and watercolor on paper, 5 1/2 × 12 in. (14 × 30.5 cm). The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, 2007.30.12. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner. Photograph by Tim Nighswander/Imaging4Art

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.108, Stacked Triangles), c. 1948–49

Figure-eight shapes and circles scattered across overlapping patches of white, brown, orange, and pink.
Figure-eight shapes and circles scattered across overlapping patches of white, brown, orange, and pink.

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.107, Dancers), c. 1948–49. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 19 3/4 × 16 in. (50.2 × 40.6 cm). Private collection. Artwork © 2023 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (BMC.107, Dancers), c. 1948–49

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

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Learn more at whitney.org/artport

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