Ruth Asawa has one of the best corners of the de Young Museum to herself.

This review actually covers the 15 or so untitled wire sculptures on rotation in the elevator bay. Right before you arrive at the (often crowded and uncomfortably mirrored) elevators, on your way to “the Tower” and the stunning ninth-floor observation level, there’s a suspended bevy of crocheted wire baskets. 

Because of the many public fountains she’s designed throughout The City by the Bay, Asawa is also known as “the fountain lady.” Maybe “basket case” was too rude a nickname. Regardless, she spend over a decade in what’s got to be the most tedious way possible—twisting and shaping iron, copper, and brass wires into her sculptures. And with the creativity of an artist, she’s decided the baskets are actually “three-dimensional drawings.”

The wire baskets come in all sizes and shapes. Some look like small planets full of thorny trees. Some look like they’re intoxicated, vomiting out their insides in twirling curlicues of wire. And some look like fishing nets wrapped around unlucky jellyfish (yeah, visit and make up your own mind…either way, they’re wild).

The real gems, though, are the concentric baskets. They’re a tricky version of Russian nesting dolls—or what I like to call…Basket Inception. Each is made from the same piece of wire so that each basket is inside another basket. But they’re actually the same basket. This is meta-basketry at its finest. Count it: a basket inside a basket inside a… Basically, that’s at least five in one! Leonardo DiCaprio’s dreams within dreams have nothing on Asawa.

Check out this video segment done by KQED Spark that shows more of Asawa's wire sculptures and their donation to the Museum. 

Protip: Seeing these sculptures and going up the tower are both part of the designated free areas of the museum, along with the outdoor sculpture garden, cafe, and atrium.