EVELYN POUSETTE-DART

POUSETTE-DART--Evelyn. Evelyn Pousette-Dart, poet and pianist, wife and muse of artist Richard Pousette-Dart, and beloved mother, grandmother and great-grand- mother, passed away on June 4, 2025 in New York City. She was 105 years old. Evelyn was born in Pennsylvania to Pearl and Homer Gracey, along with two other daughters, both deceased. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University and moved to New York City where she aspired to be a writer. There she met and married Richard Pousette-Dart, one of a group of pioneering abstract expressionist painters referred to as the "Irascibles". She developed a strong relationship to her husband's family, and was inspired by her mother- in-law Flora, a suffragette, poet, pianist and fellow lover of classical music, and her father-in-law, the artist, writer and art director Nathaniel Pousette-Dart. The couple set up residence in a railroad flat on East 56th Street where Richard maintained a studio. Evelyn taught writing to help with expenses and their lives revolved around the burgeoning New York art scene of the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1947 their daughter Joanna was born. In 1950, they moved to a farmhouse in Rockland County where their son, Jonathan, was born in 1952. Enamored with the countryside and the varied cultural community of Rockland County, the family moved to successively larger homes which Evelyn artfully decorated with antiques and art objects she loved to collect. Gregarious by nature, she nurtured a wide circle of friends and acquaintances that included artists, actors, writers, curators and museum and gallery directors whom they frequently entertained. In addition to her passion for writing and playing the piano, she participated in local politics and was a major force in supporting the local Rockland Foundation for the Arts. She loved to travel and made numerous trips with friends and family to Europe, Russia, Egypt, and Indonesia. During her life she filled copious notebooks with her poems but was too shy to consider publishing. Upon Richard's death in 1992 she returned to New York City where she remained until her death. Throughout her life she was a tireless supporter of her husband's work and his career and possessed a deep sympathy and understanding for his oeuvre. She is survived by daughter Joanna, an artist, and son Jonathan, a musician, and their families.