Untitled (PF.1052, Tree with Branches)

Artist Ruth Asawa American, 1926–2013

Datecirca 1955–1963

MediumPen and black ink on paper

Dimensionsheight and width: 14 × 10 7/8 in. (35.6 × 27.6cm)
height, width, and depth (framed): 18 7/8 × 15 3/4 × 1 3/8 in. (47.9 × 40 × 3.5cm)

ClassificationsPaper

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Art Trust Fund Endowment

Object number2023.21.1

On View

Not on view

Label TextRuth Asawa, renowned for abstract sculptures and works on paper, was born to Japanese immigrant parents in California, who raised her on a family farm. Additionally shaping her life was her family’s separation in Japanese internment camps during WWII. Asawa attended Black Mountain College in 1946 and gleaned their interdisciplinary, innovative, and exploratory values under the guidance of Josef Albers.

Asawa’s interests in nature and human experience appear in her body of work as explorations of organic shapes and marks. In Untitled (PF.1052, Tree with Branches), she explores form using precise rhythmic lines influenced by Albers’s lessons on perception. Asawa’s drawings serve as in-depth studies that connect to the influence of Black Mountain.
[J. Ledesma, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2024]ProvenanceCreated by the artist, crica 1955–1963; The Ruth Asawa family collectionExhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined," August 26, 2024-July 14, 2025. Object Rights Statement

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