Art museum shows new woven web of wire
Utah State University’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art has added another new work to its permanent collection, a large-scale sculptural work that greets museum visitors as they enter.
“Truly a remarkable piece, this organic woven wire sculpture is a gift to the museum by Kathryn Caine Wanlass,” said Victoria Rowe, director of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art on the Utah State campus. “We are fortunate to have received this artwork by Ruth Asawa, completed in the 1960s. It is more than 21 feet long and has assumed a special place suspended from the ceiling in the museum’s lobby. It will be hard to miss this prominent installation.”
Asawa, American of Japanese descent, is well known both nationally and internationally for her innovative use of wire in weaving sculptures that hang from the ceiling rather than sit on a pedestal.
“It is likely that Asawa’s childhood experiences during the Second World War informed her art-making,” said Jay Heuman, the museum’s education curator. “Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor signaling hostilities between the United States and Japan, Congress passed laws forcing Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Asawa, with her mother and sisters, was separated from her father and imprisoned, surrounded by barbed wire fences, until 1946.”
As a young art student during the late 1940s, Asawa was awarded a scholarship to attend Black Mountain College, known worldwide for its avant-garde program taught by innovative instructors, including Buckminster Fuller, the architect who designed the first geodesic dome. Beginning in the 1950s, Asawa began to exhibit her sculpture in distinguished museums, including the De Young Museum (San Francisco), Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Oakland Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). She won a commission to create the Japanese-American Internment Memorial (Federal Building, City of San Jose), and was awarded grants from the San Francisco Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Along with her art production, Asawa is recognized for her arts advocacy. Her work with the San Francisco Arts Commission, beginning in 1968, resulted in an innovative program that brought professional artists into the classroom to develop creative projects. At its peak, and with the help of government and private funding, the program operated in 50 schools.
Utah State’s museum has educational programs available to public schools as well.
“Like Asawa, introducing art education in public school curriculum is important to us at the museum,” Heuman said. “We have many unique resources and can organize rewarding experiences for teachers and students alike. We encourage teachers from Logan and the surrounding communities to call upon us to help develop and implement programs that inspire students’ creativity.
“Countless studies indicate the fine arts improve gross and fine motor skills, expand analytical problem solving skills and result in better grades in all other areas,” he continued. “The museum provides free programs, all based on the state of Utah core curriculum, and even pays for transportation.”
For further information about the Asawa sculpture or education programs, call Education Curator Heuman, at (435) 797-0165.
Summer hours for the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (650 North 1100 East, Logan, Utah, 84322, (435) 797-0163, Fax (435) 797-3423, www.artmuseum.usu.edu) are: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays. Admission is free; parking $4 (free after 3:45 p.m.). For more information or to schedule a tour of the museum, call (435) 797-0165. The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities.