A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa

by Andrea D'Aquino

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) was an influential and award-winning sculptor, a beloved figure in the Bay Area art world, and a devoted activist who advocated tirelessly for arts education. This lushly illustrated book by collage artist Andrea D’Aquino brings Asawa’s creative journey to life, detailing the influence of her childhood in a farming family, and her education at Black Mountain College where she pursued an experimental course of education with leading avant-garde artists and thinkers such as Anni and Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham, and Robert Rauschenberg. Delightful and substantial, this engaging title for young art lovers includes a page of teaching tools for parents and educators.

• ISBN13: 9781616898366
• Publish Date: 3 September 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Princeton Architectural Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 40
• Language: English
• URL: https://abramsandchronicle.co.uk/book/9781616898366-a-life-made-by-hand/

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

A Life Made by Hand is an illustrated biography of Ruth Asawa aimed at younger readers (K-3). Written and illustrated by Andrea D'Aquino, it's due out 3rd Sept 2019 from Princeton Architectural Press, it's 40 pages and will be available in hardback format.

This is an interesting book about the childhood and early adult life of Ruth Asawa. The art is as shown on the cover, and I think that it does a good job of representing -without- being simply photographic or derivative. The artist was more than her sculptural production and I believe the author managed to convey much of her (Asawa's) life experiences without being depressing or providing too much info for younger readers. The book doesn't deal with the family's forcible detention in camps during WW2, first in California, then in Arkansas. The omission was apparently at the request of her daughters, and it is discussed in the afterword.

The book includes a good selection of links to sources for further reading and exploration. This would make a superlative summer enrichment read for youngsters (perhaps with a coordinated visit to an exhibit of her work), or a classroom read, library book, or gift for an art interested youngster.

There's a cute tutorial for a kirigami insect at the end of the book which would make a nice classroom enrichment tie-in for a unit on Asawa.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.