Imogen Cunningham, Ruth Asawa Reclining and Holding One of her Sculptures, 1951

Starting the week off slow with this meditative portrait of the late Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa. She was best known for her intricate, hanging wire sculptures, which challenged preconceived notions of material and form. She began experimenting with the medium in the 1940s, while studying at Black Mountain College. It held a symbolic significance for Asawa, who spent her adolescence in World War Two internment camps surrounded by wire fences, allowing her to reclaim her past, while forging a path for herself as one of sculpture’s great pioneers. Read all about Asawa’s amazing story in Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa by Marilyn Chase, newly published by Chronicle Books.