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A photo of Ruth Asawa’s Noe Valley home in San Francisco by Rondal Partridge (Featured as a backdrop in her retrospective at SFMOMA.)

Its walls featured her own work along with art by friends including Josef Albers and Peggy Tolk-Watkins. Its shelves contained pots by Marguerite Wildenhain, as well as encyclopedias, magazines, and art books. The most distinguishing feature of the living room was the spectacular array of Asawa’s wire sculptures suspended from the open rafters overhead.

Though Asawa’s workshop, right downstairs, was the best place for projects involving messy materials and power tools, she preferred working on the main floor, amid the comings and goings of her family and near the kitchen. “I’ve always had my studio in the house,” she said, “because I wanted my children to understand what I do and I wanted to be there if they needed me—or a peanut butter sandwich.”