Best known for her mesmerizing wire sculptures that blur the line between drawing and sculpture, Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) created a body of work that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. A second-generation Japanese American, Asawa endured incarceration during World War II and emerged from that experience with a lifelong commitment to the transformative power of art and education. Trained at Black Mountain College and influenced by mentors such as Josef Albers and Buckminster Fuller, she developed a distinctive visual language rooted in repetition, transparency, and organic form.

Art historian Jennie Hirsh traces Asawa’s journey as an artist, activist, and educator, highlighting her pioneering contributions to public art and art education, her impact on contemporary sculpture, and her revolutionary role in reshaping the story of American Modernism. In weaving together different threads of this artist’s life and work, Hirsh features the current retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, which brings together some 300 works and renewed critical attention to Asawa’s legacy, positioning her at the center of the modern-art canon.

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