Overview

Gallery 11 - From the Garden, late 1980s to early 2000s is large rectangular room with 2D artworks mounted along the walls and a small rectangular case in the center of the room.

We enter Gallery 11 in the back right corner of the room. In this gallery there are three described artworks and all are mounted on the walls. On the back wall to our left there is a 2D piece near the center of the wall, on the left wall there is a 2D piece in the front left corner, and on the right wall there is a 2D piece near the center of the wall.

The exit to Gallery 12 is on the front wall, near the center.

Wall Text

From the Garden, late 1980s to early 2000s

In 1985 Asawa was diagnosed with lupus. For nearly a year her physical capacity was significantly reduced, but her creative spirit remained undiminished. She made what she could, including numerous drawings and watercolors. “As a result of this experience,” she wrote in 1987, “I realized that my interest in watercolor and drawing was by no means satisfied,” and she expressed her intent to create “a series of paintings recording the plants and flowers that my husband Albert Lanier grows in our garden.” Asawa focused more of her artistic energies on flowers from that point forward.

Throughout the 1990s a concentration of flower drawings, many of them based on bouquets given to her by family and friends, became a record of the company she kept via the inscriptions she often added: Albert’s Rose Bouquet, for instance, or Valentine Bouquet from Adam, referring to her son who often tended his parents’ flowering plants during their later years. In the early 2000s Asawa used a garden, designed in conjunction with two expert Japanese gardeners, Isao Ogura and Shigeru Namba, as the focal point for her final public commission, Garden of Remembrance, at San Francisco State University.

Objects

Untitled (WC.095, Clivia)

Label Text

mid to late 1980s
Watercolor on paper
Private collection

Visual Description

A watercolor painting of two clusters of vibrant orange flowers with elongated petals, depicting the flower Clivia or natal lily. The watercolor is about the size of a large baking sheet on cream colored paper. The soft orange flowers are clustered in roundish shapes, made up of many individual trumpet shaped blossoms accompanied by slender, pale green leaves that extend outwards from the stems. The colors are soft and blended with subtle blue and green accents.

Untitled (WC.090, Voodoo Lily)

Label Text

1990
Ink and watercolor on paper
Private collection

Visual Description

An ink and watercolor of a deep purple, possibly, voodoo lily or corpse flower on a white background, about the size of a large baking sheet. The flower features a tall, dark maroon stamen, surrounded by a singular ruffled conical flower petal in deep purple hues. The flower resembles a trumpet with a rippling and angled edge. Green, elongated leaves with wavy edges surround the central flower, protruding from a speckled stem.

Untitled (PF.293, Bouquet from Anni Albers)

Label Text

early 1990s
Ink on paper
Private collection

Asawa’s daughter Addie has mused that the artist’s practice of drawing a bouquet and then regifting the arrangement as a work of art enabled her to fully absorb the affection of friends and family who took the care to select or grow and present flowers to her. Here a card tucked among the stems toward the top of this bouquet reads “Congratulations + love from Anni.”

Visual Description

A detailed black line drawing of a vase filled with a full bouquet of flowers. The drawing is about the size of a small table and has a blank background. The flowers vary in shape and size, with some featuring elongated petals, while others are rounded or spiky, possibly lilies, chrysanthemums, sweet peas, tulips, baby’s breath, and roses. In our upper right-hand edge of the bouquet is a small envelope with a card sticking out of it that reads, "Congratulations + love from Anni". A few crooked twigs snake past the edge of the bouquet reaching almost to the top edge of the drawing. The stems are visible in the see through vase which has a wide base and narrow neck.

Getting to the Next Gallery

The exit to Gallery 12 is on the front wall, near the center.