Reviews for Charles Ray: A Four Dimensional Being Writes Poetry on a Field of Sculpture

The average rating for Charles Ray: A Four Dimensional Being Writes Poetry on a Field of Sculpture based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-14 00:00:00 Kevin Pruitt This book was an excellent expansion on the more straight-forward biography of Asawa I read last month. This appreciation of Asawa's work includes several essays -- a couple focusing on her artistic development, a couple on the contemporary critical reception to her work, a couple of her later-in-life art education activism I learned a lot reading the essays about the racist and sexist response to Asawa's art. About how so much of criticism is concerns labeling and type-casting in order to describe the meaning in a work. And about the true strength of the artist who can push aside that inequity and focus on making a representation of her ideas. And making beauty. This book includes many many fabulous photo of Asawa's works. I'm especially taken with the photographs of the installation at San Francisco's De Young Museum -- and how Asawa's hanging sculptures take on a different life with shadow-play.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-05-26 00:00:00 Yahaira Ray Someone shared with me an image of Ruth Asawa's work some years ago because my work knit wire sculptures reminded them of Asawa's looped wire sculptures. At the time, she was not known to me or my circle of artists. Then in 2007 while at the De Young Museum, I was thrilled to discover that the new addition lobby was animated with an installation of Ruth Asawa's sculptures. A long time resident of San Francisco, and as I learned from this wonderful book, Asawa was a lifetime arts advocate in California, particularly advocating for children's arts programs where she taught most of her life. This book which also serves as a comprehensive catalog of much of her work was published in connection with the De Young Museum exhibit. I think I actually bought the book just a couple of years ago when I was at the David Zwirner retrospective of her work in Manhattan. And I just started reading the book a couple of weeks ago, even though it has long been winking at me from my messy shelves of art books. A compendium of her life which includes interviews between her and her architect husband for the Smithsonian archives, essays on the critique of her work, her life at Black Mountain, her impact on arts education, and more, this book makes for an in-depth and interesting read about how this artist was shaped as she lived her humble life which was dedicated to her art, even as she raised six children. Also included are quality prints and photographs of all genres of her work---the well know sculptures of course but also paintings, drawings, and prints. I was taken with her pen drawings, which carry the feel of her wire sculptures. I have not read the second edition of this publication, nor have I read the 2019 book about Asawa written by Tamara Schenkenberg, but I would be surprised to find a much more comprehensive detailing of this artist's life than is in this book.