Ruth Marie Reeves (1892–1966) was an American painter,

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

textile designer and expert on Indian handicrafts.

Early life and education

Ruth Marie Reeves was born in Redlands, California, on July 14, 1892. She attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from 1910 to 1911, the San Francisco Art Institute from 1911 to 1913, and won an

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

's scholarship in 1913, where she studied until 1915. In 1917 she married

Leland Olds Leland Olds (December 31, 1890 – August 5, 1960) was an American economist interested in labor, development of public electric power, and ecology. Education Olds was a son of George Olds, president of Amherst College. He studied mathematics ...

, a graduate of Amherst College. They divorced in 1922. In 1920, Reeves traveled to Paris and studied with Fernand Léger. During her time in Paris, she pioneered the use of vat dyes and the

screen print Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mes ...

process for home fabrics.

Career

Returning to the United States in 1927, her designs were influenced by modern developments in France like Cubism. (extract hosted at

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) Reeves' first exhibition was with the American Designers' Gallery in New York, where she showed textiles.

Lewis Mumford Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a w ...

called her wall hangings and dresses inspired by traditional Guatemalan designs shown in 1935 "probably the most interesting work any designer has offered for commercial production today." One of her best-known works was the carpeting and wall fabrics of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Her fabric and carpet designs along with those of her colleague Marguerita Mergentime can be seen there today.

Donald Deskey Donald Sidney Deskey (November 23, 1894 – April 29, 1989) was an American industrial designer. Biography Donald Sidney Deskey was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota. He studied architecture at the University of California, but did not follow th ...

, who won the competition to design the interiors for Radio City Music Hall, commissioned Reeves and Mergentime to design textiles for the hall. The ''Index of American Design'', one of three main divisions of the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

(FAP) was originally conceived by Reeves and Romana Javitz, the curator of the Picture Collection at the New York Public Library, as a way for the American artist to find authentic American everyday objects to use as visual references for their work. The Index was established with the FAP in January 1936 with Reeves as its national supervisor. She held the position until the spring when Adolph Cook Glassgold replaced her. Within the Index, Shaker works were highly prized as Reeves felt they emphasized the art of the American common man. She later taught at the Cooper Union Art School in New York. She married engineer Donald Robert Baker and had three daughters. The couple separated in 1940. After 1956, she moved to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

as a Fulbright scholar, where she served on the All India Handicrafts Board. She died in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

in 1966.

Textile design

She often worked with narratives sourced from her life or friends lives. ''South Mountain'' is one of her earliest narrative pieces designed as an autobiographical family portrait. It was named after the road she lived on in the artist colony in New City, New York. This piece was the start of her "personal prints" that were privately commissioned limited editions. In 1930, Reeve was commissioned by the W. & J. Sloane Company to create a group of narrative textiles to be submitted to the American Federation of Art for their ''International Exhibition of Decorative Metalwork and Cotton Textiles'' that was to be held later that year at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. The company neglected to check in on her progress and in the end were horrified at the unconventional fabric she designed. Each pattern was printed on twenty-nine different types of cotton and depicted a series of rooms in an imaginary house. The fabrics also didn't sell and the relationship ended unhappily. The most notable work from this collection is "American Scene," a panorama that celebrates everyday American life: work, sports, and family. In 1933, Reeves created a series of textiles inspired by the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area ...

. These textiles were funded by a grant from the Gardner School Alumnae Fund. In 1934, the textiles were shown at the National Alliance of Art and Industry. In 1934, she traveled to Guatemala through a sponsorship from the

Carnegie Institution The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. T ...

. The textiles she collected on this trip were exhibited at Radio City in New York. In 1935, she worked with the R.H. Macy & Company to create five Guatemalan-inspired patterns that were some of her only works to be produced commercially.

Works

*Ruth Reeves (1930) ''American Scene''. W. & J. Sloane Company *Ruth Reeves (1932) Carpets. Radio City Music Hall *Ruth Reeves (1932) Wallpaper. Rockefeller Center *

References

External links