McEvoy, Myrtle S. (1892-1973)

What’s known of McEvoy is very limited and seems to reflect the limited opportunities for women artists during her time. She was born in Dubuque, IA, and appears to have studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. By the 1930s her name is mentioned in newspaper items as a teacher at the Queensborough Community Art Center; reading poems or reading palms at a Woodstock summer fundraiser. Her paintings “Allegro” and “Intime”  were shown at the Woodstock Art Gallery; “The Willow Tree,” “Paradise,” and “Flowers” at the Larkin House, Ossining, NY. At one of these shows her work was exhibited along with NDG artist Erna Lange, and it’s interesting to imagine that the two women might have met. During 1937 McEvoy worked for the “Gallery Tours” division of the Federal Art Project: “Miss McEvoy will describe the techniques of etching, aquatint, and lithography, and a demonstration of the printing of a lithograph will take place” (Daily Worker 13 April 1937: 7).

Works in the New Deal Collection at GVCA by Myrtle McEvoy:

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Autumn Leaves
Autumn Leaves

Delicate, minimalist still life depicts a vase of cut stems from trees and plants. In keeping with the season—but also reminding us of time’s passage—two leaves have fallen upon an unadorned table. McEvoy’s flattened background transforms the leaves into an arrangement of color and form; a seemingly glowing, ruby-red globe is at once part of the autumnal palette and an object of fascination in its own right.

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