Dorothy Fratt American, 1923-2017

Dorothy Fratt created inventive paintings for over three decades, most notably recognized as a master of color theory and expression. Fratt masterfully combined the onset of Color Field movement with the natural influences of Arizona’s desert vistas, producing bright, landscape-like projections of abstractionism. Her seemingly stark canvases—typically embalmed in a sole, vivid hue—are adorned with scribbles, marks, and other gestural forms that are seemingly illegible upon first glance. This disruption invokes a perfunctory effect on the viewer, prompting them to more intimately explore its obscurities. Contrasting from general perceptions of Color Field abstraction, Fray’s works are not visually expansive, rather confined by the markings surrounding the frame. Fratt’s distinctive style establishes her legacy in both the Washington Color School and the overarching Color Field Movement.

Dorothy Fratt (b. 1923, Washington, D.C.; d. 2017) received numerous scholarships to study at D.C.-area art schools, including Mount Vernon College, the Corcoran School of Art, and the Phillips Memorial Gallery Art School. Despite working in Washington, D.C., at the time in which the Washington Color School was rapidly gaining momentum, she ultimately moved to Phoenix, Arizona, developing her style independently of East Coast art centers. Fratt has exhibited throughout the United States, her first solo show being at the Washington City Library in 1946. Since then, she has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, with a major retrospective, Dorothy Fratt: 1970-1980, displayed at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. She has additionally been showcased at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the California Palace of the Legion Honor in San Francisco, CA, and the Phoenix Art Museum in Phoenix, AZ.

Since her death in 2017, interest surrounding her works has heightened, with many relocated to the permanent collections of numerous private and public institutions, including the New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ; Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ; Hilliard Art Museum, Lafayette, LA; Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Städtische Galerie, Paderborn, Germany; and Museum Art Plus, Donaueschigen, Germany.