The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University acquired Untitled (LC.012, Wall of Masks) in 2020. These 233 masks, which originally hung on the exterior of Ruth Asawa’s family home in Noe Valley, have never been shown in their entirety outside their original context. After two years of conservation treatment and careful planning, they were mounted as part of the long-term installation, The Faces of Ruth Asawa, at the Cantor. This focused exhibition, curated by Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, PhD, Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and co-director of the Asian American Art Initiative, explores Asawa’s intimate relationship with clay and offers a new context with which to understand her diverse body of work.

This installation is organized by the Cantor Arts Center. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Asian American Art Initiative Program Gift Fund and the Robert Mondavi Family Fund at the Cantor Arts Center.

IMAGE: Ruth Asawa with life masks on the exterior wall of her house. Photography by Terry Schmitt. ARTWORK: Untitled (LC.012 Wall of Masks), c. 1966–2000. Ceramic, bisque-fired clay. Courtesy David Zwirner. Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University. William Alden Campbell and Martha Campbell Art Acquisition Fund, 2020.172.1–233 © 2022 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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