About Us


gardening

A class field trip to Asawa’s vegetable garden at her home, c. 1980. Photo by Laurence Cuneo

“The planting cycle is very important because children begin to observe and understand that different activities take different amounts of time and effort, and most importantly, there are certain things you can’t rush. For example, you can’t force a plant to bloom. It has a cycle. You have to tend it and care for it and wait for the bloom to happen. If you don’t take care of it, it dies. The more experiences you have like this, the more you begin to understand your own cycle.”

We are a small staff that includes the children and grandchildren of Ruth Asawa. We honor her legacy by assisting the general public, curators, scholars and journalists in their efforts to understand her work and present her life story.

Website Acknowledgements

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Ruth and Imogen in Guerneville about 1970. Photo by Xavier Lanier

All quotes included on the website are the words of Ruth Asawa unless otherwise noted.

We wish to thank Wendy Bardsley for her creative design, joyful advice and care she expressed throughout the making of this website.

In addition, three photographers have given us memorable images. Beginning in the 1950s and until she died in 1976, Imogen Cunningham was a close personal friend. Many of Imogen’s photographs document Ruth’s early work and family life.

From the middle 1950s until his early death in 1964, Paul Hassel, another friend, created an extensive body of work that has proved invaluable.

And finally, Laurence Cuneo began documenting Ruth in 1971, taking portraits, individual sculpture photos, and installation shots.

Special thanks to the Imogen Cunningham Trust, the Estate of Paul Hassel, and Laurence Cuneo, as well as countless other photographers, for sharing their photos to tell the story of Ruth Asawa.

 

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