SMoCA pays homage to the vivid color fields of Arizona artist Dorothy Fratt
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An exhibit at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art pays tribute to a Phoenix artist you may not have heard of before. “Dorothy Fratt: Color Mirage” is the first large-scale solo exhibition of Fratt’s work in a U.S. museum.
Dorothy Fratt lived in the Phoenix area for more than 70 years. To get here, she drove cross-country with four kids in 1958; she died in 2017.
The Show recently visited SMoCA to talk to Jennifer McCabe about Dorothy Fratt and her work. McCabe is the museum’s director and chief curator. How would she describe Fratt’s painting style?
“It did evolve over time,” McCabe said, “but her works that she is most known for are large-scale color field, what we would call color field. And so that just means they’re big patches of usually bright colors, often with shapes. She had a lot of different philosophies about painting, and so she explored those through her paintings.”
What were some of those philosophies?
“One was dialogue. So different colors and shapes in conversation within the paintings. Another was about the periphery, so she explored formes around the outsides of the painting. She painted a lot of landscapes, so ... knowing the titles of her works is really helpful because it will give you a clue as to what you might be looking at,” McCabe said.
“And what's so interesting about (Fratt) is that when she was painting this color field or abstract style, people really wanted to see cowboys, horses, sunsets,” she added. “They wanted that Western feel. And she did it, but in her own unique way. So that's what makes her work really special to me.”
We turn a corner and see more bright, vibrant colors — but instead of on canvas, these are prints.
“Yes, she did a lot of prints,” McCabe explained. “She worked with another local artist, John Armstrong, who is a master printmaker. And he told me this wonderful story about printing with Dorothy, and they ran out of an orange color in the middle of the run. And she said, ‘No worries. I’ll be right back.’ And she left the room, came back with an exact match. She had left and mixed the same orange color. So she had a visual memory of color that really stood out to this master printmaker.”
The exhibit is arranged chronologically, which allows visitors to follow along as Fratt’s style evolved over time. The Show asked McCabe what stands out to her about Fratt’s later work, relative to what we saw from earlier in her career.
“As we move into the ’80s and ’90s, the scale of the paintings increases. So they’re a much larger scale. Really vibrant colors, as we were talking about — so we’ve got some royal blues and bright reds. Additionally, she really explores the edges of the paintings with her forms but also, in one particular painting, her signature. She signs the painting on all four edges so that you can rotate it when you display it,” McCabe said.
“Dorothy Fratt: Color Mirage” will be on display at SMoCA through July 21.
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