Ruth Asawa's floating wire sculptures are captivating ever more art lovers as the years pass and museums give this remarkable artist her due. Born in the U.S. to Japanese parents in 1923, Asawa's work is so striking yet weightless, sensuous yet abstract -- I'll leave more adjectives to others. I'd seen one piece at the Whitney Museum, but at MOMA, walking through room after room of her outsize magical pieces, I felt the full force of her vision.

Asawa was interned with her family during World War II, merely because of her Asian ethnicity. She credits her time in the camp to stirring her artistic imagination and learned to draw from two Disney artists who were also interned there. After the war she attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina, a hot bed of artistic innovation. There she worked with Josef Albers as well as Buckminster Fuller, both of whom she says had defining influences on her art.

Asawa developed an absolutely unique way of working with wire, with the aim of "drawing in space." She sometimes referred to her technique as crochet, but, in fact, close analysis reveals it to be a different craft -- in fact a very old one -- called knotted netting, used by net-makers and basket makers. What's particularly mind-blowing is that these enormous pieces are made with one continuous strand of wire. When creating these shapes within shapes, Asawa worked from the inside out, manipulating wire with her hands, often getting cuts in the process, and the entire piece is created from this single strand which she manipulates into interconnected loops.

There's lots more to learn, for those interested, at RuthAsawa.com, and I particularly recommend the videos in which she discusses her art. She lived for many years in San Francisco where she made a real mark, and died in 2013. She seems to have been a most humble person, deeply dedicated not only to art, but also to education and community.