I’d heard about Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective from a few separate sources when it first opened, but didn’t get the chance to see it for myself until somewhere around the tail-end of 2025, when I happened to be writing an essay on Wilfredo Lam, and took a trip over to the Museum of Modern Art to visit their (also phenomenal!) current show Wilfredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream. It might’ve been a happy coincidence when I saw the exhibition on Ruth Asawa for the first time—but that’s only because I did not anticipate just how much this exhibition would speak to me. I expect that the same can be said for any of MoMA’s guests who happen to visit the show unfamiliar with the sheer extent of Ruth’s legacy and life’s work.
One year and a half of art school under my belt, I knew the bullet points of Ruth’s life before seeing the exhibition. She was born in California to a family of Japanese immigrants. She spent some time in internment during the hysteria of WWII. She went to Black Mountain College and studied under Joseph Albers. She’s famous for her long, bulbous, delicate wire sculptures that hang from the ceiling; I knew what those looked like.
Most importantly, I could tell that people love her. I could see how most people—artists and non-artists, art historians and non-art historians alike—get a certain sparkle in their eyes when you mention Ruth. I knew why, but couldn’t really understand it until I saw her works in front of me.
The list of reasons to see artwork in-person rather than through a screen, in general, is exhaustive. Except for those of Ruth, I’ll try to put it into words best and as simply as I can: these pieces live and breathe. It’s problematic to call a piece of art “autonomous” because it’s not; artwork cannot be pulled apart from the context it is born out of/into, or exist in a space separate from humanity. When I say Ruth’s pieces are alive, I really mean to say that’s how your body reacts to them—as if they were living. It’s a physical feeling. Experiential. One that pictures can’t do justice, as with any other breathtaking sight.
When I say Ruth’s pieces are alive, I really mean to say that’s how your body reacts to them—as if they were living. It’s a physical feeling. Experiential. One that pictures can’t do justice, as with any other breathtaking sight.
I heard good things about the retrospective, but no one told me it spanned MoMA’s entire 6th floor, containing over 300 of her life’s works in every variety, organized chronologically. According to David Zwirner, Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective is, “the first major museum exhibition to consider every aspect of the artist’s expansive, groundbreaking practice,” and will travel to the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain and Fondation Beyler in Switzerland after it’s time at MoMA.
After learning more about her in her ideas and methodology, I believe the retrospective format does Ruth’s work a lot of justice. These pieces do well in conversation with each other and their previous iterations or stages of life. There’s a potion of the exhibition that touches on Asawa’s concept, “everything is connected, continuous.” At Black Mountain College, Ruth created this dancer motif; a figure with non-distinct arms that reach above its non-distinct head. Once you look closely at her wire sculptures, you see that she uses the same gestural shape in each row of the interwoven wires.
It’s a beautiful idea.
Once I saw this concept realized, I walked through the rest of the show keeping it in mind. At the very end there’s a back room that touches on Ruth’s public art commissions in the San Francisco Bay Area beginning in the mid 1960s, and also showed a short film featuring Ruth as an arts advocate, teaching children about sculpture and abstract art. In 1968, Ruth and Sally Woodbridge co-founded the Alvarado School Arts Workshop, which later evolved into the San Francisco Arts Education Project, a public arts education program. She wanted to pass on her knowledge to future generations, and have children be connected with art.
At the same time, she was concerning herself with natural forms. She began to create many wire sculptures that follow the shape and direction of trees and other plants—many different branches reaching out, all stemming from the same center or trunk.
No part of the showcase of her experimental way of working felt out of place to me. It was all useful; it all fed into itself. None of it was random.
After a big room of these kind of sculptures, the exhibition ends with a group of wire sculptures in the same style that she began with as she never gave up on that style, only ever learned from it, applied it to other things, learned from that, and applied those things back to what she’d been doing before; a continuous cycle. No part of the showcase of her experimental way of working felt out of place to me. It was all useful; it all fed into itself. None of it was random.
I got a chance to see this exhibition for the second time when Jan Lisa Huttner (FF2 Media’s Editor-in-Chief) suggested that I join “Women of Culture NYC” for a guided tour. I eagerly accepted, and had a great time hearing about it from other points of view.
Seeing Ruth’s life in this way was incredible, and I feel so privileged that I had the chance go and see the retrospective for myself. Unfortunately, the exhibition left MoMA on February 7th, but read about Ruth, and keep watch for her work in your own neck of the woods. I promise, you’ll be glad you did!
© Evy Ray (02/14/26)—Special for FF2 Media®
LEARN MORE/DO MORE
Visit See Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective at MoMA and/or explore the exhibition online!
Read about other reflections on the retrospective.
Discover other Ruth Asawa exhibitions happening right now and in the future.
Join Women of Culture and participate in other similarly exciting and inspiring events.
CREDITS/PERMISSIONS
Featured Photo: Ruth Asawa, a San Francisco sculptor recognized as a major post-WWII American modernist for her intricate hanging wire creations, died August 6, 2013 in San Francisco. Asawa is shown in in this 2004 file photo in front of life masks she cast of friends. Asawa was 87. UPI/Terry Schmitt Alamy W08XJP.
Middle Photo: Untitled (S.383, Wall-Mounted Tied Wire, Open-Center, Six-Pointed Star, with Six Branches), c. 1967 Wikimedia.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Ruth Asawa was the daughter of Japanese immigrants, and had no direct Jewish heritage. However, it is impossible for a Jewish viewer to ignore the “Star of David” at the center of this image. Ruth Asawa was, in fact, deeply connected to the Jewish-American community, particularly through mentorship, institutional support, and a shared, profound understanding of the suffering caused by bigotry. Ruth’s career path often crossed with those who had escaped European anti-Semitism, creating a supportive network of colleagues and mentors in the post-WWII era. (jlh)
Bottom Photo: Adoring crowd at MoMA’s 2025-2026 Ruth Asawa Retrospective in Manhattan. Photo Credit: Evy Ray (1/18/26) Authorized for responsible use by FF2 Media provided that users include a link to this post in their credits.
Exit Photo: Ruth Asawa, a San Francisco sculptor recognized as a major post-WWII American modernist for her intricate hanging wire creations, died August 6, 2013 in San Francisco. Asawa is shown in in this 1999 file photo working on a bronze cast of a knitted wire sculpture. Asawa was 87. UPI/Terry Schmitt Alamy W08XJN.
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