Evelyn Svec Ward (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Evelyn Svec; 1921–1989) was an American fiber artist, she was known for her abstract textile work. She was influenced by Mexican handicrafts and Mexican traditional fiber. She worked at the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

in the textiles department for almost 10 years, before embarking on her career as an artist.

Early life and education

Evelyn Svec was born on August 15, 1921, in

Solon Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, to parents Lydia (née Pravda) and Charles Svec. She was raised in

Maple Heights Maple Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb of Cleveland. The population was 23,701 at the 2020 census. History In 1935, the city created Maple Heights Transit to provide connections to Downtown Cleveland ...

, and graduated from Maple Heights High School in 1939. She received a B.A. degree (1943) from

Otterbein College Otterbein University is a private university in Westerville, Ohio, United States. The university was founded in 1847 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and named for United Brethren founder, Philip William Otterbein. It has been as ...

(now Otterbein University). One summer in 1952, she studied at

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

(Sorbonne).

Career

From 1948 until 1955, Ward had worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the textiles department under curator Dorothy G. Payer Sheperd. In 1952, she married , he was an

exhibition designer An exhibition designer is a professional who creates fixtures and display stands for events such as large public exhibitions, conferences, trade shows and temporary displays for businesses, museums, libraries and art galleries. Duties An exhibit ...

at the Cleveland Museum of Art. They honeymooned in the

Oaxaca Valley The Central Valleys () of Oaxaca, also simply known as the Oaxaca Valley, is a geographic region located within the modern-day state of Oaxaca in southeastern Mexico. In an administrative context, it has been defined as comprising the districts of ...

in Mexico. After their honeymoon, the couple annually traveled to Mexico, a place that influenced her work. She would use Mexican local materials and fibers in her work including from the maguey cactus (agave americana), zacate root, and

amate Amate ( from ) is a type of bark paper that has been manufactured in Mexico since the precontact times. It was used primarily to create codices. Amate paper was extensively produced and used for both communication, records, and ritual during t ...

bark paper. She expressed in interviews feeling a connection to history through the materials.

Death and legacy

She died in the hospital on April 8, 1989, in Cleveland. In 1991, her work was featured in a postmortem retrospective exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her work can be found in public museum collections including at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, Cleveland Museum of Art,

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the List of largest art museums, largest ar ...

, and the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Evelyn Svec 1921 births 1989 deaths Otterbein University alumni People from Solon, Ohio Artists from Cleveland 20th-century American women artists Textile artists from Ohio