Evelyn Svec Ward

Evelyn Svec Ward 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 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, Ohio, to parents Lydia and Charles Svec. She was raised in Maple Heights, Ohio, and graduated from Maple [Heights High School] in 1939.
She received a B.A. degree from Otterbein College. One summer in 1952, she studied at University of Paris.

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 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. They honeymooned in the Oaxaca Valley 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, zacate root, and amate 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 Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.