Overview

Gallery 6 - The Living Room, 1960-2013 is a large rectangular room with four cases embedded in the walls, many single podiums with sculptures, and ten large sculptures suspended high above our heads. It has high ceilings and blond wood paneling on all the walls.

We enter Gallery 6 in the back left corner of the room. In this gallery there are four described artworks all at the end of the gallery on our right. Suspened from the ceiling on our right is a cluster of five looped wire metal sculptures, one of which is described. On the wall in front of us at the right end of the room are a drawing and a painting with a sculpture on a plinth in front of them.

The exit to Gallery 7 is directly across from where we came in, in the front left corner.

Wall Text

The Living Room, 1960-2013

“My home was and is my studio.”

—Ruth Asawa

The heart of the Asawa-Lanier Noe Valley house was its cathedral-like main living space—similar in proportion to this gallery—which boasted south-facing windows, a double-height ceiling measuring nineteen feet, and rustic, floor-to-ceiling wood paneling. The space was filled with objects reflective of the constant creative activity the artist encouraged in her children and guests to the home, such as bread-dough figurines, sketchbooks, and yarn-wrapped God’s eyes. Its walls featured her own work along with art by friends including Josef Albers and Peggy Tolk-Watkins. Its shelves displayed pots by Marguerite Wildenhain as well as art books. The most distinguishing feature of the living room was the spectacular array of Asawa’s wire sculptures suspended from the open rafters overhead.

Though Asawa’s workshop, right downstairs, was the best place for projects involving messy materials and power tools, she preferred working on the main floor, amid the comings and goings of her family and near the kitchen. “I’ve always had my studio in the house,” she said, “because I wanted my children to understand what I do and I wanted to be there if they needed me—or a peanut butter sandwich.”

Image

Caption

Living room of Asawa’s home in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood
1969 Photograph by Rondal Partridge © 2025 Rondal Partridge Archive

Description

A black and white photo of children with light skin tone sitting in a spacious, living room with a high vaulted ceiling where four large, looped-wire metal sculptures are suspended. The sculptures are multi lobed abstract forms. The room is furnished with full bookshelves, a piano on our left, a fireplace on our right, and a table in the foreground covered with small clay or metal sculptures. In the center of the living room is a grouping of wooden and armchairs with children reading and playing. A dog lies on a patterned rug, with sunlight streaming through a window on our left. Through the doors at the back of the living room is a dining room with more suspended looped-wire sculptures.

Objects

Untitled (S.039, Hanging Five Spiraling Columns of Open Windows)

Label Text

ca. 1959-60
Monel wire
de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of the artist

In 2005, in advance of her major exhibition at San Francisco’s de Young Museum the following year, the artist made a gift of fifteen sculptures that reflect the range of her work in wire. Among them was this ambitious open window form, which featured prominently in her home.

Selections from Asawa’s gift to the de Young are on view in the lobby of its Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Tower.

Visual Description

A vertically suspended silvery looped-wire cylindrical sculpture with flared arching openings made from monel wire. The entire sculpture is about the size of a door. The entire surface undulates with the curved protrusions which create windows into and through the sculpture. The main body of the sculpture has a slight twist to its shape.

Untitled (FF.1234, Paul Lanier on a Blanket)

Label Text

ca. 1962-63
Ink on technical paper
Private collection

Visual Description

A brown and beige toned felt-tipped marker drawing of Paul Lanier as a small baby nestled into a woven like pattern. The drawing is about the size of a large baking tray. The repetitive interwoven shapes resemble an undulating basket weave and cover most of the composition. At the top of the drawing slightly off center is a drawing of a sleeping baby wearing shorts, a vest, and a hat in a similar pattern to the background, making the baby blend in. The baby's legs, arms, face, and tummy are created by the only negative space in the piece.

Portrait of Imogen Cunningham (S.457)

Label Text

ca. 1953
Iron wire on a baking-pan base
Private collection

Photographer Imogen Cunningham was not only a close friend of Asawa’s and regular visitor to the home, but one of the artist’s favorite subjects; Asawa sketched her many times during their decades-long friendship. Here, the artist conjures Cunningham’s likeness in looped wire with a found object for a base, resulting in a whimsical sculpture that was a regular part of the living room’s décor.

Visual Description

A looped wire sculpture, loosely resembling Imogen Cunningham's head and neck sits on a square, rust-colored baking pan. The sculpture is abstract, with a long neck, rounded head, prominent nose and is slightly smaller than life size. At the top of the head sits a large lobe resembling a slightly squashed hat.

Josef Albers

Label Text

Born 1888, Bottrop, Germany; died 1976, New Haven, Connecticut
Study for Variant, August 1947
1947
Oil on blotting paper
Private collection

Albers and Asawa traded art with one another over many years. This early example from Albers’s Variants series, gifted to Asawa during her student years and treasured by her from that point forward, is inscribed: “For Ruth Asawa. August 1947.”

Visual Description

An oil painting on paper, the size of a notebook, features a series of nested, layered, colorful rectangles. The outermost rectangle is a dark greyish blue set against the light-colored paper. Inside, a brown rectangle sits slightly off center towards our left. Inside the brown rectangle is a vibrant orange-red rectangle. Inside, a brown rectangle sits slightly off center towards our left. Inside the brown shape is a vibrant orange-red rectangle. Within this, two smaller vertical coral pink rectangles are nested at either end of the orange rectangle connected at their bottom by a strip of coral. Mirrored at the edge of the orange rectangle is another strip of coral. Within each pink rectangle, sit two dark blue vertical rectangles that resemble doorways. The artwork is textured, with visible brushstrokes and an earthy, muted color palette.

Getting to the Next Gallery

The exit to Gallery 7 is directly across from where we came in, in the front left corner.