IN MEMORIAM: Ruth Asawa

The East Coast art museums, as broadly provisioned as they are compared to the West Coast, kindled my love of modern "craft" art, and as I age I attend to it attentively.

The work of these artists, attracting less popular attention than pricey painters, and less critical attention than conceptual art, attracts me all the more for its transcendence of didactic trends; its presence is wordless.

It waits for the viewer, and remains its unique somatic body while filled with void.

I was saddened to know of the passing of Ruth Asawa. She is best know for woven metal hanging structures which cast the most lyric shadows on gallery walls. 

She was featured in an exhibit at LA Valley College a few years ago and I was glad to see them there.  (See 12-13-10 blog.)

Most touching, I never knew that she was among many Japanese who were interned during World War II. 

It's not hard to understand how nativism was manipulated by a cynical Roosevelt to build support for the war effort, but every time I drive by Manzanar I feel such shame.

She said she did not feel hatred about her interment in Arkansas. It was part of what made her who she was.

She also made several public sculptures for San Francisco, was active as an arts advocate, started a high school there (why didn't I ever know about her?  She could have come to a CAEA convention so easily. Overlooked.)

 She also drew.  This is a fascinating abstract I found in the Harvard Museum Collection.

Farewell, brave woman,mother, and artist.