Add to Collection

Add this item to an existing or new collection.
Harvard Art Museums
Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
Zig-zag columns of stamped words on newspaper

The phrase, “DOUBLE SHEET” is repeatedly stamped in black ink across a page from a yellowed newspaper. This stamped phrase frequently overlaps slightly, giving the appearance of five distinct columns across the page. From the top left, each column slants in first to the left, then back to the right, alternating at regular intervals downward to the bottom of the page. There are varying amounts of space left in between each column. The fourth and fifth columns are inverted, zig-zagging first right instead of left. Each column is the width of that one phrase, but as they are stamped by hand, each has subtle irregularities in spacing. In the second and fourth columns, the phrase appears upside down, while in the others, it is right side up. In between the columns, the original text from the newspaper shows through in much smaller type.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR49.391
People
Ruth Asawa, American (Norwalk, California, USA 1926 - 2013 San Francisco, CA)
Title
Untitled (BMC.120, Double Sheet stamp on newsprint)
Other Titles
Former Title: Double Sheet on newsprint
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1948-1949
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/225466

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Stamped ink on newspaper
Dimensions
55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r. in black ink: RUTH ASAWA
  • inscription: l.r. in black ink: RUTH ASAWA // BLACK MT. COLLEGE // N.C.

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
BR49.391
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

  • John David Farmer and Geraldine Weiss, ed., Concepts of the Bauhaus: The Busch-Reisinger Museum Collection, exh. cat. (1971), cat. no. 16
  • Laura Muir, Object Lessons: The Bauhaus and Harvard, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2021), pp. 270, 279, plate 35, 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. 53, ill. (color)

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • The Bauhaus

Related Articles

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