BR49.390: Untitled (BMC.117, BMC stamp on newsprint)
DrawingsThe block letters “BMC” are repeatedly stamped across a sheet of newsprint in wavy lines. The letters appear sometimes upside down, or upright, or at rising and falling diagonal angles. In sections, the letters overlap, creating darker areas that appear at intervals to form vertical lines that run the height of the page. At top and bottom, smaller text shows through in places from the newspaper page, which is turned sideways. At lower left is a handwritten inscription in black ink “ N.C. RUTH ASAWA BLK. MT, COLLEGE”.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- BR49.390
- People
-
Ruth Asawa, American (Norwalk, California, USA 1926 - 2013 San Francisco, CA)
- Title
- Untitled (BMC.117, BMC stamp on newsprint)
- Other Titles
- Former Title: BMC on newsprint
- Classification
- Drawings
- Work Type
- drawing
- Date
- c. 1948-1949
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/225517
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Stamped ink on newspaper
- Technique
- Stamped
- Dimensions
- 41.9 x 55.9 cm (16 1/2 x 22 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
- Signed: l.r. in black ink: RUTH ASAWA
- inscription: l.r. in black ink: N.C. // RUTH ASAWA // BLK. MT. COLLEGE
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Josef Albers
- Copyright
- © Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy David Zwirner
- Accession Year
- 1949
- Object Number
- BR49.390
- Division
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- Contact
- am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Publication History
- Tamara Schenkenberg, ed., Ruth Asawa: Life's Work, exh. cat., Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Yale University Press (St. Louis, New Haven, 2019), pp. 59, 146, ill. (color)
- Kim Conaty and Edouard Kopp, ed., Ruth Asawa: Through Line, exh. cat., The Menil Collection, Menil Drawing Institute and Whitney Museum of American Art (Houston and New York, 2023), p. 52, ill. (color)
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 1520 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Interwar and Bauhaus), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/06/2015 - 07/07/2015
- Ruth Asawa: Life's Work, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, 09/14/2018 - 02/16/2019
- Artisanal Modernism, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/28/2023 - 05/07/2023
Subjects and Contexts
- The Bauhaus
Related Digital Tours
Verification Level
This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu