BR49.391: Untitled (BMC.120, Double Sheet stamp on newsprint)
DrawingsThe 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
-
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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
- Black Mountain, Blum Art Institute, New York, 04/15/1987 - 07/04/1987; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 07/18/1987 - 10/04/1987
- 32Q: 1520 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Interwar and Bauhaus), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/06/2015 - 07/07/2015
- The Bauhaus and Harvard, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/08/2019 - 07/28/2019
- Artisanal Modernism, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/28/2023 - 05/07/2023
Subjects and Contexts
- The Bauhaus
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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