{"product_id":"the-sculpture-of-ruth-asawa-contours-in-the-air","title":"The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa: Contours in the Air","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe scope and stature of Ruth Asawas work are brought into brilliant focus in this superb book  created to accompany the first complete retrospective of the artists career. Beginning with her earliest worksdrawings and paintings created in the 1940s while studying at Black Mountain Collegethis beautifully illustrated volume traces Asawas trajectory as a pioneering modernist sculptor who is recognized nationally for her wire sculpture  public commissions  and activism in education and the arts. The Sculpture of Ruth Asawa establishes the importance of Asawas work within the larger national context of artists who redefined art as a way of thinking and acting in the world rather than as merely a stylistic practice. A chronology and a collection of essays by noted scholars highlight Asawas complex relationship to American art and Asian American history and provide engrossing biographical information.  In her lifelong experimentations with wire  especially its capacity to balance open and closed forms  Asawa invented a powerful new vocabulary. Committed to enhancing the quality of daily life through art produced within the home  she contributed a unique perspective to the formal explorations of twentieth-century abstract sculpture. Working in a variety of non-traditional media  Asawa performed a series of uncanny metamorphoses  leading viewers into a deeper awareness of natural forms by revealing their structural properties. Through her artistic practice  Asawa reconnects with the Buddhist ethos of her parents  transforming the commonplace into metaphors for life processes themselves.  Essays by Daniell Cornell  Emily Doman  Mary Emma Harris  Karin Higa  Jacqueline Hoefer  John Kriedler  Susan Stauter  and Sally Woodbridge Copub: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44983978950709,"sku":"ByrdShop_0520250451","price":45.83,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780520250451.jpg?v=1770817374","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-sculpture-of-ruth-asawa-contours-in-the-air","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}