X
c
Open Saturdays 11am–6pm | Reserve tickets now
Contact Calendar Museum Store S
Asheville Art Museum

Asheville Art Museum

North Carolina museum exhibiting 20th century American art

Explore
D

Exhibitions

Collection

Learn

Calendar

Perspective Café

Museum From Home

Museum Store

Blog

About Us

Learn more about current and upcoming exhibitions.

EXPLORE EXHIBITIONS
>
Visit
D

Plan Your Visit

Tours

Perspective Café

Facility Rental

smARTguide

About Asheville

c

Museum Hours:

Open daily 11am–6pm. Late-night Thursdays until 9pm; closed Tuesdays. Pre-purchased online tickets are encouraged; walk-in tickets are also available.
m

Museum Location:

2 South Pack Square
Asheville, NC 28801
P

Museum Contact:

828.253.3227
mailbox@ashevilleart.org
Support
D

Membership

Gala 2023

Give

Collectors’ Circle

Volunteer

Careers + Internships

Museum Members receive 12 months of free general admission.
BECOME A MEMBER
>
Become A Member!
Home > Blog > Basket by Ruth Asawa
Ruth Asawa, Basket, 1948–1949, copper wire, 4 1/2 × 7 1/2 × 7 3/4 inches. Black Mountain College Collection, Museum purchase with funds provided by 2010 Collectors’ Circle with additional funds provided by Frances Myers, 2011.01.02.58. © Estate of Ruth Asawa / Artist Rights Society (ARS), NY.

Work of the Week

Basket by Ruth Asawa

November 2, 2021

Ruth Asawa (Norwalk, CA 1926–2013 San Francisco, CA) enrolled at Black Mountain College in summer 1946. In Josef Albers’s design class, students used materials such as leaves and found objects in their studies, largely because the college could not afford art supplies. Anni Albers and student Alex Reed created hardware jewelry, further demonstrating that quartiers de noblesse do not exist among materials. In summer 1947 in Mexico, Asawa became intrigued by the looped wire baskets used to hold eggs at the market. This simple form, constructed from a common utilitarian material, was the catalyst for the creation of Asawa’s elegant wire sculptures. Simple wire baskets evolved into more complex forms as she realized the capacity of looped wire structures to support weight and retain form.

—Mary Emma Harris, noted Black Mountain College scholar and author of The Arts at Black Mountain College (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1987) and other Black Mountain College texts

 

Ruth Awasa first visited Mexico in 1945 when she took a class at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México with designer Clara Porset, studying Mexican functional crafts. She returned in 1947 to volunteer with the Quaker’s American Friends Service Committee and at this time met craftspeople in Toluca, Mexico, who taught her how to make wire egg baskets. The smaller of the two baskets seen here was created with a thinner wire that was easier to manipulate and is likely an earlier version of the wire baskets for which she has become known. The larger basket is more rigid in its form and uses a higher gauge copper wire. There is also a hanging wire basket by Asawa on view in the SECU Collection Hall.

—Whitney Richardson, associate curator

^
Back
to top
Asheville Art Museum

Sign up for e-News!

f
t
i

Explore

  • Exhibitions
  • Collection
  • Learn
  • Calendar
  • Store
  • Blog
  • About Us

Visit

  • Plan Your Visit
  • Perspective Café
  • Virtual Visits
  • Facility Rental
  • Accessibility
  • Program & Event Tickets
  • About Asheville
  • Contact

Support

The Asheville Art Museum's vision is to transform lives through art.
  • Membership
  • Give
  • Benefit Events
  • Collectors’ Circle
  • Volunteer
  • Careers
  • Internships

Location & Hours

c

Museum Hours:

Open daily 11am–6pm. Late-night Thursdays until 9pm; closed Tuesdays. Pre-purchased online tickets are encouraged; walk-in tickets are also available.
m

Museum Location:

2 South Pack Square
Asheville, NC 28801
P

Museum Contact

828.253.3227
mailbox@ashevilleart.org
© 2023 Asheville Art Museum
For Press
>
Copyright Information
>
Contact
>