Frederick Spratt
Frederick Spratt | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 22, 1927 Iowa, USA |
| Died | April 29, 2008 (aged 80) San Jose, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | M.A. Art, State University of Iowa, 1951 |
| Known for | Painting, Sculpture, Installation |
| Movement | Light and Space |
| Awards | 85th and 84th Annual Exhibition, S.F.A.A, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1966 and 1965 |
| Elected | Professor of Art Emeritus at San Jose State University, 1989 |
| Patron(s) | San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Triton Museum, SFMOMA, De Saisset Museum |
Frederick Spratt (1927 – April 29, 2008) was an American artist and educator, best known for his color theory paintings.
Early life
Born in
landscape paintings.[2] He returned to San Jose, California, in 1963 and continued to teach at San Jose State University where he served as the Chairman of the Art Department and as the interim Dean of Humanities and Arts.[3]
Color theory painting
In 1970, he moved to Los Angeles and began to experiment with color theory, but continued teaching classes part-time at
acrylic lacquer onto aluminum. In 2004 Spratt described his artistic endeavor in the following way: “It seemed I was seeking a way to put paint in the service of art while freeing it from the harness of depiction or narration. To let color be its own narrative through its combination and by the palpability of painted fields.” [6]
Several of his paintings from the 1970s were exhibited nationally at O.K. Harris Gallery, New York City, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and at Janus Gallery, Los Angeles in 1976 and 1978, respectively. This same year he returned to San Jose and, after five short years, opened his own gallery—Frederick Spratt Gallery[7]—in 1993 which operated until his death in 2008. Many of his remaining works belong to the permanent collection of the San Jose Museum of Art[8]
Exhibitions
- 1985 - Ten California Colorists,.
- 2004 - The Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California, mounted a solo exhibition of his color theory works entitled Trooping the Colors.
- 2008 - A retrospective—Fred Spratt: Color and Space[10]— was held at the San Jose Museum of Art in San Jose, California.
- 2016 - "Artists in Residence: San Jose's 20th Century Vanguard"[11][12] at the San Jose Museum of Art featured several of Spratt's large lacquer-on-aluminum paintings that make direct reference to the color work of Mark Rothko.
Photograph of Frederick Spratt Big Red #1
Personal life
Frederick Spratt is survived by his daughter Kris and sons Mike and Shahn Spratt.
See also
- Color Theory
- Light and Space
- Monochrome painting
References
- ^ Artshift San Jose » Blog Archive » Recalling The Momentious Sixties And Seventies Archived November 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Contemporary Art America (1969 University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign), page 158
- ^ ArtSlant – February 16th, 2008 – July 6th, 2008, San Jose Museum of Art, Fred Spratt
- ^ Peter Selz, West Coast Report: Plastics into Art (New York: Art in America, May–June 1968) 114
- ^ Peter Plagens, Unslick in L.A. (New York: Art in America, 1978) 85
- ^ Frederick Spratt, Trooping the Colors (Santa Clara: Triton Museum of Art, 2004) 8
- ^ ArtSlant – Frederick Spratt Gallery
- ^ "Exhibitions + Collection". San José Museum of Art. December 28, 2015. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
- ^ Ten California Colorists: Karl Benjamin, Guy John Cavalli, Daniel Cytron ... [et Al.]. Redding Museum & Art Center. 1985.
- ^ "Exhibitions + Collection". San José Museum of Art. December 21, 2009. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
- ^ "Exhibitions + Collection". San José Museum of Art. December 28, 2015. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
- ^ "San Jose Museum of Art | Artistic Pioneers | 20th Century Vanguard | Arts | Silicon Valley". www.metroactive.com. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
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