PBS News Hour, story by Jeffrey Brown
2025
The work of artist Ruth Asawa, who died in 2013, is back in the spotlight with a major traveling exhibition. It’s a celebration of not only her work, but also an extraordinary life. Senior arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown reports for the PBS arts and culture series, CANVAS.
They are large looped wire sculptures hanging from the ceiling. They can look like human bodies or shapes from nature. And grouped together, they play off one another through shadows and light.
The works of Ruth Asawa come in many sizes and also many forms, including paintings and drawings, clay masks and bronze sculptures of hands and feet.
Janet Bishop, Curator, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Really, anything could be a viable material for art for Asawa.