And a sprawling retrospective of Ruth Asawa’s sculptures at SFMOMA
Words by DAVID NASH and ELIZABETH VARNELL
Ruth Asawa’s Hand-Looped Wonders Come Home
Ordinary industrial materials are transformed in the hands of California-born sculptor, painter, and printmaker RUTH ASAWA, whose sinuous work covers 14,000 square feet of SFMOMA’s fourth floor in a stunning new show. Ruth Asawa: Retrospective showcases the airy, hovering wire sculptures she handcrafted using a basket-looping technique she learned on a 1947 trip to Toluca, Mexico, and more than 300 other works. The exhibition, created in partnership with MoMA, highlights the spectrum of her six-decade practice, including incarceration with her Japanese parents during World War II and her studies at North Carolina’s Black Mountain College under Joseph Albers and Buckminster Fuller. Her midcentury arrival in San Francisco is also highlighted, as is the role of her Noe Valley studio and home and the inspiration she found in her garden for late plant and flower drawings. Asawa’s public commissions are visible around the city from the Embarcadero to Union Square, the Mission, Japantown, Ghirardelli Square and San Francisco State University, and she championed collaboration and expanding access to art. The artist and community organizer even studied dance with Merce Cunningham for a summer, and the exhibition highlights her experimental practice of playing with negative space and continuous forms that incorporate ideas of movement as well as stillness. Also included in the show are works from many of Asawa’s peers and mentors including Albers, Fuller, Imogen Cunningham, Marguerite Wildenhain, Hazel Larsen Archer, and Merry Renk. Like her fellow innovators, Asawa’s pieces pushed the parameters of art even as she advanced the importance of public works. Apr. 5–Sept. 2. 151 3rd St., S.F., 415-357-4000; sfmoma.org. E.V.
 |
A Retrospective Redux for Photographer Diane Arbus
Although not well known by the general public when she took her own life in New York City in July 1971, 48-year-old Diane Arbus was admired by fellow photographers and artists for the intensity of her photographs — from children and the elderly in their natural surroundings to cross-dressers and the nouveau riche — that ultimately helped to elevate photography to fine-art status. In November 1972, just over a year after her death, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened a retrospective exhibition curated by John Szarkowski that paved the way for institutions, collectors, and the public to recognize and embrace the medium’s power. In commemoration of the artist’s monumental and posthumous retrospective, DAVID ZWIRNER and FRAENKEL GALLERY have joined forces to present Cataclysm: The 1972 Diane Arbus Retrospective Revisited. The show recreates the groundbreaking exhibition’s catalog of 113 images and serves as the first major survey of Arbus’s work in L.A. in two decades. Seminal images like Tattooed man at a carnival, MD. 1970, Triplets in their bedroom, N.J. 1963 and A very young baby, N.Y.C. [Anderson Hays Cooper] 1968 underscore the ferocity of her talent and poignancy of her work more than 50 years later. Apr. 24–June 21. 606 N. Western Ave., L.A.; davidzwirner.com. D.N.
|
50+ Years of Arthur Elgort’s Visionary Eye
With a focus on movement and an eye for natural light, famed fashion photographer ARTHUR ELGORT transformed his métier with his career-making black-and-white shot of model Apollonia van Ravenstein running with two leashed dogs for British Vogue in 1971. Since then, his work has appeared in Vogue, Mademoiselle, Glamour, GQ, and Rolling Stone, and his advertising campaigns for Chanel, Valentino, and Saint Laurent have produced memorable images. Now the full range of his work, featuring models on bustling streets, in bucolic landscapes, or in midair is on view in Reverie, an exhibition of Elgort’s photography that spans decades and showcases many of his most recognizable images (and some you may never have seen) at Fahey/Klein Gallery. March 6–May 3. 148 N. La Brea Ave., L.A., 323-934-2250; faheykleingallery.com. D.N.
|
Skaters Carving Concrete Take Over the Library
The birthplace of Thrasher magazine is the setting of a new exhibition on street skating’s underground history, SKATEBOARDING SAN FRANCISCO: CONCRETE, COMMUNITY, CONTINUITY, installed at the city’s main library. The vast swaths of asphalt — from the Embarcadero to the hilly streets of Fillmore — that lured the magazine’s founders, along with scores of pros and amateurs seeking the ultimate rush over the past 50 years, are documented in the new show co-curated by art historian Ted Barrow. Drawn by the area’s topography, a trove of creatives documented the city’s rich skating history over the years. The show includes art from magazines as well as archival images, videos, and even found objects from favored spots, including the stairs and ledges of Hubba Hideout near Justin Herman Plaza. Additionally, there are urban art and books from the library’s collections, zines from the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, back issues of Thrasher, hand-lettered signs by Mission District local Margaret Kilgallen, and skate decks painted by Oakland artist Felicia Gabaldon. Skating is still not permitted around public buildings, including the library, but the exhibition takes place steps from the newly revitalized UN Skate Plaza, a Civic Center training ground where next-generation tricks are honed before they get tested on the city’s landscape. Through July 6. 100 Larkin St., S.F., 415-557-4400; sfpl.org. E.V.
|
Wayne Thiebaud’s Unabashed Art Thievery
Pastel-hued meringues and thickly frosted cakes on display in deli cases and drugstore windows, a nod to mass consumption and commercial imagery, are WAYNE THIEBAUD’s most instantly recognizable works. His geometric cityscapes are equally striking. But the painter had a practice deeply rooted in art history. Sixty of his works, completed from 1957 to 2020, reinterpreting those by European and American masters (ranging from Rembrandt van Rijn portraits to Giorgio Morandi’s quiet still life depictions), make up a new Legion of Honor exhibition, Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art. The show, part of the museum’s yearlong centennial celebration, explores how others influenced Thiebaud’s six-decade career and served as inspiration for his confections, landscapes, and portraits. Through August 17. 100 34th Ave., S.F., 415-750-3600; famsf.org. E.V.
|
A Centenary Concert For Modernists
A celebration of what would be French iconoclast composer Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday has brought together L.A. PHILHARMONIC conductor laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen and L.A. DANCE PROJECT’s Benjamin Millepied for a series of performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The company will dance Boulez’s Rituel, choreographed by Millepied, a co-commission with the Orchestre de Paris–Philharmonie and the New York Philharmonic. Pieces by Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky are also on the bill, and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is on hand for the evening of avant-garde work devoted to the modernist conductor, composer, and writer. May 8–11. 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A., 323-850-2000; ladanceproject.org, laphil.com. E.V.
|
The Hammer Museum Goes Beyond All That Jazz
Jazz musician ALICE COLTRANE, who arrived in California after her husband John’s death and became spiritual director of an ashram, developed innovative sonic melodies from chants while leading a singular life. Her creativity, Hindu devotional songs, and musicality as a harpist and pianist are all on display at the Hammer Museum’s multisensorial exploration of her life and work, Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal. Images and ephemera from Coltrane’s archive join new sculpture, paintings, and installations from 19 artists she influenced including Martine Syms, Star Feliz, Rashid Johnson and producer and DJ Steven Ellison (Flying Lotus). Unreleased audio and rare video footage are also included in the show. 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 310-443-7000; hammer.ucla.edu. E.V.
|
New Sculptures Meet Elemental Forces In Palm Springs
The Coachella Valley’s site-specific international art exhibition, DESERT X, is back with situated-in-nature work by Agnes Denes, Sanford Biggers, Alison Saar, Raphael Hefti, Jose Dávila, Ronald Rael, Sarah Meyohas, and a roster of creatives. Our collective effect on the land continues to inspire those selected by the exhibition’s artistic director, Neville Wakefield, and co-curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas. It features timelines of the past and future, emerging technology, and the role of the elements themselves, from bursts of wind to unabating sunlight. The life cycle of plants animates Denes’ The Living Pyramid at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, while Biggers’ Unsui (Mirror) sculptures reflect the freedom and interconnection symbolized by clouds. Dávila’s marble blocks composing The Act of Being Together crossed the Mexico border to reside in the U.S., calling to mind the architectural works of ancient civilizations while looking at the future. Saar’s Soul Service Station, made from salvaged materials, is a place for reflection, pausing, and healing. March 8–May 11. desertx.org. E.V.
Portions of this story originally appeared in the Spring and Men’s Spring 2025 issues of C Magazine.
Discover more CULTURE news.
