The Southern Vermont Arts Center exhibited a posthumous retrospective of the unknown American Artist, David Joel Pratt in July 2016.

David Joel Pratt (1927 – 2008) painted for nearly seven decades. Educated at Pratt Institute, the American University at Biarritz, and Teachers’ College at Columbia University in New York City, David also taught Fine art to teenagers in New York’s inner city for 24 years. During that time he documented early research in art therapy based on his observations of the artwork of deeply troubled children that he taught. Due to unfortunate events in his life, the bulk of that work still remains unpublished. David started painting in Kindergarten when he was given his first oil paint set. The set unlocked the world of fine art for him and set him on a course of artistic creation that continued for the rest of his life. Few of his works were sold, however, leaving a small but remarkable body of artwork and letters that span nearly his entire life.

David’s mature style of painting may best be described as architectonic abstraction that draws from both the cubist and abstract movements. The unique features of his more mature style include an intense color palette as well as very complex compositions that integrate so well in canvases that they are very accessible to the viewer not well versed in modern art movements. Sketches of several of his major works will be presented along with the works themselves (as well as some partly finished canvases) that reveal his artistic modus operandi. His oeuvre is also characterized by several well-defined leitmotifs (cityscapes, amusement parks, harbor scenes, and urban overviews among others) that demonstrate how his mode of painting played out in each.

Exerpt taken from article on svac.org >