Purple Magazine
— Purple #43 S/S 2025
The Tokyo Diary Issue
ruth asawa
DOING IS LIVING
Born in California to Japanese immigrants, avant-garde American artist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) was interned during World War II. She learned to draw at a war relocation center in Arkansas, taking inspiration from organic forms in nature and indigenous basket-weaving. In 1962, she began working with wire, using it as a way to transform her drawings into three-dimensional forms. Her iconic tied-wire sculptures, rooted in natural branching patterns, evolved over time into increasingly organic, abstract shapes. Asawa painstakingly crafted these drop-like forms by interlocking looped wire. Having experienced the trauma of internment, she became an advocate for accessible art education and was instrumental in founding the San Francisco School of the Arts, now named in her honor.
ALL ARTWORK COPYRIGHT RUTH ASAWA LANIER, INC. / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK, COURTESY OF DAVID ZWIRNER
