Hester Ayers

Artist Details

• First Name Hester
• Middle Name Eliza
• Maiden Name Merwin
• Alternate Name(s) Hester Merwin Handley Ayers
• Surname Ayers
• Spouse’s Full Name Edward Lindsley Ayers born 1896, died August 18, 1963 in Pasadena, California married after 1950
• Previous Spouse(s) Robert O. Handley married in 1939 in Hauppaug, Long Island, New York
• Birth Date January 24, 1902
• Birth Place Bloomington, Illinois
• Death Date December 4, 1975
• Death Place New Smyrna Beach, Florida
• Residence(s) Bloomington, Illinois
  
  Chicago, Illinois
• Active In Bloomington, Illinois
  
  Chicago, Illinois
  
  Florida
  
  New York, New York
• Categories Illustrator, Muralist, Painter-Oil, Pastelist
• Training School of the Art Institute of Chicago with Albin Polasek
  Florence, Italy
  mural course, New York, New York
  New York, New York, student of Howard Giles
  Pasadena, California, student of Einar Hansen
  Taos, New Mexico, student of Nicolai Frechen
  University of Mexico, course in mural painting
  
• Relevant Travel Inspired by a trip around the world at a young age.
  
  1925, several months in India, Burma, Dutch East Indies, China.
  
  Spent several months outside Peking, China before 1933.
  
  1937: member of the Merwin-Haverlee expedition to Lapland
  
  Painting in Kabul, Afghanistan; Delhi, India; Oaxaca, Mexico; Japan; Thailand; Burma; Dutch East Indies, Polynesia
  
  lived in Mexico for a full year (did the Oaxacan Indian drawings)
  
  spent a winter on a plantation in Dominica, British West Indies (drew Carib Indians)
  
  1968-1972: she made three trips to East Africa , exploring areas of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History 1926: New York, New York
  
  1927: Russell Art Gallery
  
  1931: Stockbridge, Massachusetts
  
  1933: Faces of East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda), Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois (solo)
  
  1934, 1940: Decatur Art Center, Decatur, Illinois
  
  1935: New House Galleries, New York, New York (solo)
  
  1948: Hester Merwin, Farargil Galleries, New York, New York
  
  1950: Indians and Mexicans of Oaxaca, U of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois (solo)
  
  1951: Indians and Mexicans of Oxaca, 25 charcoal and crayon portraits
  
  1957: Portraits, Bloomington (IL) Art Association, Withers Library, Bloomington, Illinois
  
  1972: Brannon Memorial Library, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
  
  1974: Faces of East Africa, Illinois Wesleyan University’s Merwin Gallery, Alice Millar Center for the Fine Arts, Bloomington, IL
  
  2015: Art, Technology and the Natural World, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
  
  Caribbeans and Indes Natives, National Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
  
  Decatur, Illinois
  
  Research Studios Gallery, Florida (solo)
  
  Springfield, Illinois
  
  Stetson University, Deland, Florida (solo)
• Collections Bloomington Art Association, Bloomington, Illinois
  
  Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
  
  McLean Arts Center, Bloomington, Illinois
  
  McLean County Museum of History, Bloomington, Illinois
  
  Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois
  
  Withers Public Library, Bloomington, Illinois
• Publications
  Lyons, Channy. "Hester Merwin Ayers," Illinois Heritage, March/April 2014, vol. 17, issue 2, p. 32.
• Awards 1961: Volusia County Artists Association, Stetson University, DeLand, Florida - Greek Fisherman
  
  1961: New Smyrna Beach Artists Workshop exhibit - conte crayon portrait of a Mayan Indian
  
  named for her
  
  Hester Merwin Ayers Gallery at Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida
  
  Hester Merwin Ayers Art Achievement Award at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois
  
  Mrs. Hester Merwin Ayers Scholarship at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois
• Archive(s) correspondence with cousin in Margaret Merwin Patch papers, 1885-1986 in Archives in American Art, Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology, National Anthropological Archives – “Hester Merwin Carib Indian drawings”
• Other Occupation(s) Magazine illustrator: "Asia", "Click", "Natural History"
  
  Set designer, builder
• Biography Sister of Loring C. Merwin, publisher of The Pantagraph for over three decades.
  
  Aunt of Davis U. Merwin, publisher of The Pantagraph from 1968 to 1980