Fratt was born and raised in Washington, D.C.–the arts mainstream. The National Gallery and The Phillips Collection, monuments and sculptures around every corner. Art schools and art teachers. She was a prodigy, winning first place in an exhibition at the esteemed Corcoran Gallery of Art at age 15.
But in 1958 her husband’s job transferred him to Phoenix and so she went too. Phoenix of the 1950s bears no resemblance to the Phoenix of today with all its professional sports teams and museums and airport flying around the world nonstop. In 1950, Phoenix had just over 100,000 residents, 99th most in the United States. Today, the city is the nation’s 5th most populous.
Phoenix was on the periphery of America when Fratt showed up in 1958.
After working through all the various styles of Modern art she would explore in a career that began as a pre-teen, was it artist and place as periphery inspiring her paintings with their wonderfully strange attention to their edges. “Dorothy Fratt: Color Mirage” at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art through July 21, 2024, let’s guests ponder the question for themselves.
