Virtual Silent Book Club with Marilyn Chase
Join us on Tuesday, May 19th, for a virtual author chat with Marilyn Chase, author of Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa. The event is free, but you must RSVP in advance to receive the Zoom link.
We have partnered with Chronicle Books to give away 10 copies of the book to readers who have registered for the event, so enter here for a chance to win!*
Photograph by Imogen Cunningham; © The Imogen Cunningham Trust
Everything She Touched recounts the incredible life of American sculptor Ruth Asawa (1926–2013), a woman who wielded imagination and hope in the face of intolerance and who transformed everything she touched into art. This new book by journalist and author Marilyn Chase is the first biography of this major American artist.
Ruth Asawa’s art is both extraordinarily beautiful and entirely unique. Her most famous works are her hanging wire sculptures—sinuous, intricate, and seemingly weightless metal pieces that she created from humble materials. They are widely celebrated and are now exhibited in museums and galleries all over the world.
Ruth Asawa was born and raised on a California farm. During World War II, she and her family were imprisoned in Japanese American internment camps, where she got her first art lessons from three Walt Disney animators who were interned along with her. After the war, Ruth attended the groundbreaking school at Black Mountain College, where she began experimenting with new forms of art under the tutelage of Josef Albers and Buckminster Fuller.
Photograph by Imogen Cunningham; © The Imogen Cunningham Trust
Asawa forged an unconventional path in everything she did—whether raising a multiracial family of six children, founding a high school in San Francisco dedicated to the arts, or pursuing her own art practice independent of the New York art market. She also created iconic urban public art as well as hundreds of sculptures and works on paper.
In this compelling biography, Marilyn Chase brings Asawa’s story to vivid life. She draws on Asawa’s extensive archives and weaves together many voices—family, friends, teachers, and critics—to offer a complex and fascinating portrait of this extraordinary woman. With photographs and artworks reproduced throughout the book, this is a richly visual volume that invites readers to step inside Asawa’s story.
About the author
Author Marilyn Chase is a San Francisco-based author, journalist, and teacher. She spent over two decades at the Wall Street Journal, and her previous books include The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco. As a continuing lecturer at U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Chase now teaches reporting and writing to a new generation of journalists.
Buy the book
Hardcover: $29.95
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Pages: 224
Dimensions: 7.5 X 1.3 X 9.4 inches | 1.95 pounds
Order the book on Bookshop.org where 10% of every purchase supports independent bookstores.
*Anyone can RSVP and attend the free event, but the book giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. No purchase necessary.