Fritz and Larry
1965
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
lithograph (stone) in black on white Arches paper
Dimensions
image: 25.1 x 24.4 cm (9 7/8 x 9 5/8 in.) sheet: 28.2 x 24.7 cm (11 1/8 x 9 3/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Dorothy J. and Benjamin B. Smith
Accession Number
1983.18.213
Art Historical Context
**Fritz and Larry** a striking 1965 lithograph Ruth Asawa, the innovative Japanese-American artist best known for her delicate, looped-wire sculptures that evoke organic forms and natural growth. Created in black ink on fine white Arches paper, print measures about 10 by 9 ½ inches and showcases Asawa's exploration beyond sculpture into printmaking. The title hints at personal or whimsical subject matter—perhaps playful figures or portraits—rendered through the precise, fluid lines characteristic of her modernist sensibility. Lithography on stone, a 19th-century technique revived in mid-20th-...
About the Artist
Ruth Asawa
Ruth Asawa (1926–2013), born Ruth Aiko Asawa in Norwalk, California, as the fourth of seven children to Japanese immigrant farmers Umakichi and Haru Asawa, grew up on a truck farm where she honed her artistic eye sketching natural forms in the sand. During World War II, her family endured separation under Japanese American internment; while most were held at Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas—wh...