Ruth Asawa’s Life Was Even More Remarkable Than You Thought

Undulating in form and almost dreamy in effect, the famous lantern-like sculptures of Ruth Asawa have been recognizable for decades.
But Asawa’s life is as rich in detail and twisting in path as any one of these designs, as a new biography out this month by Marilyn Chase makes clear.
ArrowEverything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa—which is out just in time to coincide with the U.S.
Asawa’s 1943 Leave Identification Card that allowed her to depart from a Japanese interment camp is now in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
And from its outset, the book is chock-full of examples of Asawa’s general resiliency—from her 1930s California childhood to her time spent at a Japanese interment camp to ultimately being denied a teacher’s college degree due to her race.