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Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective
October 19, 2025 – February 07, 2026
The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art announces Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, the first major museum exhibition to fully consider every aspect of the artist’s expansive, groundbreaking practice, on view from October 19, 2025, through February 7, 2026, in the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions. Coinciding with the centennial of the artist’s birth, the exhibition will include some 300 objects that highlight the core values of experimentation and interconnectedness pervading all dimensions of Asawa’s practice. The retrospective will span the six decades of Asawa’s ambitious career, presenting a range of her work across mediums, including wire sculptures, bronze casts, paper folds, paintings, and a comprehensive body of works on paper. Artworks will be accompanied by a rich array of archival materials—photographs, documents, and ephemera—that illuminate her public commissions, art advocacy, and meaningful, lasting relationships with members of her community. The exhibition will follow a loose chronological arc, interwoven with thematic sections elaborating on the artist’s inspirations and methods.
Ruth Asawa: A Retrospectiveis an exhibition partnership between the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA). The exhibition is organized by Cara Manes, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA and Janet Bishop, Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator and Curator of Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA; with Dominika Tylcz, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, MoMA; and Marin Sarvé-Tarr, Assistant Curator, and William Hernández Luege, Curatorial Associate, Painting and Sculpture, SFMOMA.
Leadership support for the exhibition is provided by the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation and Monique M. Schoen Warshaw.
Press Kit
Images
Ruth Asawa. Untitled (BMC.145, BMC Laundry Stamp), c. 1948–49. Stamped ink on fabric sheeting. 36 3/4 × 45 1/2″ (93.3 × 115.6 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Acquired through the generosity of Joshua and Filipa Fink, 2018. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner
Ruth Asawa. Untitled (S.398, Hanging Eight-Lobed, Four-Part, Discontinuous Surface Form within a Form with Spheres in the Seventh and Eighth Lobes), c. 1955. Brass wire, iron wire, and galvanized iron wire. 8′ 8 1/2″ × 14 1/2 × 14 1/2″ (265.4 × 36.8 × 36.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, Promised gift of Alice and Tom Tisch, 2016. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner.
Ruth Asawa. Untitled (S.535, Hanging Five-Lobed Continuous Form within a Form with Spheres in the First and Fourth Lobes and a Teardrop Form in the Third Lobe), 1951. Iron and brass wire. 87 × 12 1∕2 × 12 1∕2 in. (221 × 31.8 × 31.8 cm). Private collection. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner.
Ruth Asawa. Untitled (S.390, Hanging Tied-Wire, Double-Sided, Center-Tied, Multi-Branched Form with Curly Ends), 1963. Copper wire. 20 × 20 × 20 in. (50.8 × 50.8 × 50.8 cm). Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, gift of Rita Newman. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner.
Ruth Asawa. Poppy, 1965. Lithograph. 30 1∕16 × 20 9∕16 in. (76.4 × 52.2 cm). Publisher and printer: Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles. Edition: proof outside the edition of 20. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co., 1967. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner.
Ruth Asawa. Untitled (PF.293, Bouquet from Anni Albers), early 1990s. Ink on paper. 40 × 26 in. (101.6 × 66 cm). Private collection. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner.
Ruth Asawa at Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective View, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1973. Photograph by Laurence Cuneo. © 2024 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner.