Ruth Reeves

Ruth Marie Reeves (1892 – December 23, 1966) was a painter, Art Deco textile designer and expert on Indian handicrafts

Ruth Marie Reeves was born in Redlands, California in 1892. She attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from 1910 to 1911 and won an Art Students League's scholarship in 1913.

In 1920, she travelled to Paris and studied with Fernand Léger. During her time in Paris, she pioneered the use of vat dyes and the screen print process for home fabrics.

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

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