Throughout her practice, Asawa made inventive use of reproduction technology. In the 1970s she used a mimeograph to duplicate and overlap a drawing of a chrysanthemum blossom on the same sheet of paper. With the increasing availability of Xerox machines, Asawa began employing them in her teaching practice and research. In the series displayed here, she made compositions using plants and objects around her house, turning them into improvised black-and-white arrangements. Like lithography, the photocopy machine also allowed her to reverse positive images into negative ones.

Gallery label from

Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, October 19, 2025–February 07, 2026

Medium Lithograph
Dimensions composition and sheet: 17 13/16 × 17 15/16" (45.3 × 45.5 cm)
Publisher Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Inc., Los Angeles
Printer Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Inc., Los Angeles
Edition proof outside the edition of 11
Credit Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.
Object number 1590.1967
Department Drawings and Prints

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Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa

American, 1926–2013 58 works online

Whether it’s a craft or whether it’s art. That is a definition that people put on things,” artist, activist, and educator Ruth Asawa has said.

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