Maya
<p>Ruth Reeves created <em>Maya</em> after studying stone and ceramic depictions of Mayan and Aztec glyphs (systems of writing). The work includes Reeves’s interpretation of three symbols for water that she used to build her composition.</p> <p>In the early 20th century, American designers like Reeves sought new, non-European sources of inspiration for textile and fashion design. The American Museum of Natural History spearheaded the movement in 1915 by making their Indigenous North and South American collections accessible to artists in an effort to foster a new American design aesthetic.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1931
- Dimensions
- Unfolded: 235 × 131.5 cm (92 1/2 × 51 3/4 in.); 235 × 121 cm (92 1/2 × 47 5/8 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Ruth Reeves
Artist
Painting
Ruth Reeves was an American textile designer and weaver whose abstract compositions translated modernist painting into woven and printed fabrics. Working from the 1920s onward, she developed a distinctive vocabulary of geometric and organic forms that bridged fine art and industrial design. Her work appeared in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and established her as a pioneering figure in American textile modernism during a period when the medium remained largely marginalized in fine art discourse.
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Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Ruth Reeves
- Year
- 1931
- Dimensions
- Unfolded: 235 × 131.5 cm (92 1/2 × 51 3/4 in.); 235 × 121 cm (92 1/2 × 47 5/8 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1931-137831
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified