Untitled (SF.045c, Potato Print - Branches, Purple/Blue), c. 1951–52

Clara Rojas-Sebesta: Hi, my name is Clara Rojas-Sebesta. I'm the Ellsworth Conservator of Works on Paper and we are here in the conservation studio.

This is Untitled [(SF.045c Potato Print - Branches, Purple and Blue)], circa 1951 to '52. To create this work, Asawa took an ordinary potato about the size of the palm of her hand, sliced it in half to give her a flat surface. She then would have carved into that flat surface her shape that she wanted to repeat over in this print. The form she chose is an abstracted tree form with a center trunk topped by an open circle loop. 

Asawa did not re-ink the potato as she moved across the row, so the ink would become lighter and lighter as she moved across. And in some cases, only the outline of the tree form was left. This really gives you a play of positive and negative space and transparency, which reflects her practice in other works of art.

Narrator: As you’ll see throughout this room, Asawa often printed and stamped paper using everyday objects. “An artist,” she later explained “is an ordinary person who can take ordinary things and make them special.”