Ruth Asawa revolutionized 20th-century sculpture with her woven-metal, organically-shaped hanging works. The child of Japanese immigrants, Asawa spent her teenage years in Japanese internment camps in California and Arkansas. She eventually pursued a teaching career but was not allowed to teach due to her race. This led to her pursuing an art career and attending Josef Albers' famous Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Alongside her sculptural work, Asawa was also a prolific printmaker, creating works om paper that shared the curved, plant-like forms of her sculpture. Plane Tree Reversal comes from a major body of prints she created during an artist's residency in 1965 and takes its influence from the artist's love of plants and gardening. The two spiky shapes on either side of the image appear frequently in Asawa's art and may reference chrysanthemums, which also appear often in her work.

Source: DMAC News Jan Feb Mar Apr 2022