ruth asawa's crocheted wire sculptures grace new US postage stamps

the united states postal service (USPS) has announced a set of stamps featuring 10 of ruth asawa’s meticulous wire sculptures. the stamps honor the late japanese american artist, whose work is often likened to birds’ nests, her technique borrowing from mexican basket weaving.

image via ruthasawa.com

photographed by dan bradica and laurence cuneo, the sculptures are printed on a set of 55¢ forever stamps. the set includes 20 stamps showcasing asawa‘s wire sculptures, with a 1954 life magazine photograph of asawa in the margin of the set.

image courtesty of USPS

asawa’s wire sculptures are in the collections of the solomon r. guggenheim museum and the whitney museum of american art. she lived in san francisco and created several public fountains around the city, including one near union square that she completed in 1972 with the help of 200 schoolchildren.

image via ruthasawa.com

using wire as a way of drawing in space, asawa’s looped-wire sculptures explore the relationship of interior and exterior volumes. they have been described as embodying various material states: interior and exterior, line and volume, past and future. among the works highlighted are untitled (s.039, hanging five spiraling columns of open windows), 1959, and untitled (s.055, hanging asymmetrical nine interlocking bubbles), ca. 1955, which features nine connected orbs in various colors.

image courtesy of USPS

born in norwalk, california, in 1926, during world war ii asawa was held with other members of her family in internment camps for japanese-americans, including one in the stables at santa anita racetrack. it was there that she she spent time drawing and was taught by internees who had worked as animators at walt disney studios.

all other images via ruthasawa.com

asawa also led a drive to establish the san francisco school for the arts. she co-founded the alvarado arts workshop in 1968 and was instrumental in the opening of the first public arts high school in san francisco in 1982, which was renamed the ruth asawa san francisco school of the arts in her honor in 2010. asawa died in 2013.