INTRODUCING AN 8-YEAR-OLD TO A MUSEUM, AND A FAVORITE ARTIST FRIEND
Olympia and her mom studying a Ruth Asawa wire sculpture (Author photo)
I was lucky enough to have known the artist Ruth Asawa. And now I’m lucky to know one of her newest fans.
Born in California in 1926 to Japanese immigrant farmers who were not allowed to become American citizens or own land, Asawa endured family separation and hardships after the eruption of World War II that would have embittered the most generous of souls. She and her siblings lived for five months in horse stalls still reeking of dung, going from there to an overcrowded internment camp that was surrounded by barbed wire and watch towers.
But Asawa harbored no resentment and cast no blame, saying decades later “I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment.” Because in those years she first discovered her love for painting and drawing and began what would be an amazing lifetime of art: creating, teaching, drawing everyone around her into the beauty she saw and knew. (Among the several fine books about Asawa my favorite is Everything She Touched by Marilyn Chase. Worth a read. Great Christmas gift.)
Asawa wire sculpture in Whitney show (Author photo)
The first major show of Asawa’s drawings is at the Whitney Museum until January 15, Ruth Asawa Through Line, and it is balm for the soul.
My visit was extra special thanks to my new friend Olympia. She arrived, with her mom, a writer friend, all dressed up and appropriately excited. If I were more knowledgable myself it would have been helpful for Olympia’s art education, but I absolutely loved being the gateway — and being able to tell tales of knowing Asawa in San Francisco.
The author with Ruth Asawa, early 2000s
In the Whitney gallery, we met another woman who had been a neighbor, and it quickly became the Old Hometown Asawa Admiration Society. Ruth and her husband, architect Al Lanier whom she met at Black Mountain College, raised their children in a charming but unpretentious house around the corner from the school where she was a constant presence.
Asawa’s hands were never still. When she came to tea at my house she would pull a batch of papers from her bag and, while we talked, turn them into origami doves or other shapes. I remember saying, as she left the table scattered with beautiful little origami pieces, “Ruth! Are these mine?!?” (They were.)
The visit to the Whitney show was the best of Art: introducing a young newcomer and honoring a down-to-earth yet extraordinary woman who spent her life bringing others into her world. It was a world of beauty and essential humanity.
You can see it until January 15. Take an 8-year-old with you if you can.
Morning, Fran. I like the artworks you photographed for this story. She’s a very talented artist.
Indeed! I’ll bet her works are in a museum or two around your part of the country; check it out. Meanwhile, holiday joy and Happy New Year from the left coast.