In these two prints, Asawa portrayed her father, Umakichi, in formal attire with a pentagonal pendant—likely a fabric omamori, a type of amulet sold at Japanese Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Temporarily based in Los Angeles for her Tamarind residency, Asawa visited her aging parents in nearby Anaheim and drew them in moments of respite. Both prints were created with the same stone, presenting Umakichi in an abstracted floral field. The negative image resulted from a chemical treatment of the stone that caused ink to adhere to the parts of the design that had previously repelled it.
Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, October 19, 2025–February 07, 2026
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Ruth Asawa
American, 1926–2013 58 works onlineWhether it’s a craft or whether it’s art. That is a definition that people put on things,” artist, activist, and educator Ruth Asawa has said.
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