Ruth Asawa Postage Stamps

I remember the first time I saw Ruth Asawa’s work in the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco.

Her intricately-woven wire sculptures were suspended in a gallery with lighting that cast shadow patterns on the walls that moved ever-so-slightly as the pieces swayed.

In the context of a contemporary art museum Asawa's works are sculptural, modern, and finely-crafted.

Later I saw a documentary about her produced by KQED that revealed how she produced many of them in a regular house, on a regular street, in a regular neighborhood, employing her children to measure and cut the wire as she crocheted away.

This approach of “integrating creative labor into daily life” came from her formative years at Black Mountain College working and studying among the likes of Merce Cunningham, Anni Albers and other creative giants of her generation.

Or maybe it went with her there, from the California farm where she grew up.

This year the US Postal Service honored Asawa with a collection of stamps, pictured above. I’m glad her work and story are getting the attention they deserve.

https://www.commarts.com/exhibit/usps-ruth-asawa-stamps

For younger readers, there is an excellent biography of Asawa called “A Life Made By Hand” from Princeton Architectural Press.

https://papress.com/products/a-life-made-by-hand-the-story-of-ruth-asawa