Ruth Asawa
Ruth Asawa was a Japanese-American born artist who rose to fame in the mid-1900s for her iconic wire sculpture work. Asawa overcame many obstacles as a Japanese-American WWII America. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans of all ages and nationality on the west coast were taken to internment camps. Asawa spent about her entire childhood in this camp before graduating from the high school in her camp. From an early age, Asawa's artistic ability was apparent at an early age and was encouraged to create her own artwork, earning art awards in school at the age of 11. Recalling her childhood,"I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the internment, and I like who I am." Due to restrictions placed on ethnic Japanese-Americans on the west coast, Asawa was force to attend college in the eastern parts of the United States after finishing the high school at her camp. She settled in Milwaukee with With roots in more two-dimensional drawing and design, Asawa was inspired to bring those types of works to life in the forms of wire sculptures and iron-casting. Those drawings, and thus her sculptures, were further influenced by the shapes and phenomena of nature. Asawa says, "These forms come from observing plants, the spiral shell of a snail, seeing light through insect wings, watching spiders repair their webs in the early morning, and seeing the sun through the droplets of water suspended from the tips of pine needles while watering my garden."
If a natural essence was what Ruth Asawa would try to depict in some of her most famous works, it is safe to say she was successful. The way she utilizes the structure of wire to capture an organic shape, frozen in space is a testament to her eye for three-dimensional art. It is especially commendable considering her early focus was in two-dimensional art on paper and such. Then her ability to translate that art into a tangible space is truly amazing. Another aspect of Asawa as an artist that comes through in her wire sculptures specifically is a sense of patience. Wire appears to be a very tedious material to work with, and you can even tell from the pictures of her work how many small details she probably worked hours over. That combination of patience and eye for three dimensional art are the two main aspects that seem to come across in her work.
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder was born in Pennsylvania to a pair of artistic parents in 1898. Given their professions in the artistic world, it was only natural Alexander would take up an interest in the arts himself. His father, Stirling, a sculptor who was regularly commissioned for work would travel with his son throughout the country, exposing a young Alexander to the life of a traveling artist and the workspaces where art can be created. Alexander's first works can date back to 1909 when he was only 11 years old; a dog and duck cut from brass sheet. Although, Calder did not immediately take up a career in art making. He originally attended the Stevens Institute of Technology after high school, graduating with a degree in engineering. He would go on to work jobs in his field like anyone would. It was on a fateful day during one of these jobs at sea that Calder found himself looking at a simultaneous sunrise and moonset in the early morning. This made enough of an impression on him to pull those artistic roots back to the forefront, encouraging Alexander to follow in his father's footsteps as a sculptor. Calder found his passion in wire-making, forging a unique identity for himself where he often mimicked the look of paper line drawings in a three dimensional space with wire. Alongside that style, he would dabble in the more abstract, combining wire with simple shapes to create something different, but still uniquely Calder.
The one thing that makes Calder's work so appealing is its personality. Where some wire artists in the modern day may attempt to achieve technical precision and artistic perfection. Calder's work embodies an artist's ability to convey their personality through the work. That's not do downplay any other artist's ability to do so in making such refined work. Simply put, the "father of wire art" created work that felt like the first of its kind. It didn't seem to take itself too serious while simultaneously being a fresh new form of sculpting in a rapidly evolving world of art. From works small enough to be boxed up to grand scale installations that decorate the ceiling of airports. Calder's artistic identity became unmistakable. It truly felt like Calder was doing something he loved regardless of what anyone had to say about it.
via artsy.net
via artsy.net
via artsy.net
Deborah Butterfield
Deborah Butterfield is an artist that was born "on the of the Kentucky Derby" in San Diego in 1949. Growing with a fascination in horses, Butterfield leaned on that as her subject matter for most of her sculptural work. After graduating with a bachelor's and master's of fine arts from University of California-Davis in '72, she chose to really explore that fascination with the horse form at that time when conceptual art was really taking off. Building in a horse form was not her original idea, as she discusses her early projects of ceramic saddles that was more symbolic of the relationship between the rider and horse as oppose to just the horse itself. But instead of doing her most famous works in ceramic, she created an identity for herself by using mixed materials including wire, mud, paper, plaster, and straw. She also discusses how her horse sculptures are the closest things to self-portraits as she can get, by way of material use and horse posing.
While it's easy to think repetitive horse sculptures would be a boring body of work, Butterfield's use of different materials and form of the horses are what really capture her artistic identity. No one horse is the same. While some may be purely wire or purely wood, her use of mixed materials to create volume and texturing contrast make for visually interesting works that capture a time and place Butterfield would have been at when constructing these.