David Foster Pratt

David Foster Pratt (11 January 1918 – 21 November 2010) was an American artist, art instructor and designer. He was best known for his watercolor and oil landscapes. Pratt served as the director of the Art Institute of Buffalo in the late 1940s and early 1950s. During his tenure at the institute, he worked closely with Charles Burchfield. He lived and worked most of his life in western New York. His works have been exhibited in many northeastern and mid-west states.

Life

He was born 11 January 1918 in Ithaca, New York. As a young boy, Pratt watched an artist set up his easel and begin painting the New York countryside. He was curious and stopped to talk. The artist was Carl Bredemeier. That was Pratt's introduction to art. It also began a lifelong friendship between Pratt and Bredemeier.

In 1934, Pratt began working in Bredemeier's gallery in Buffalo, New York. Pratt worked with Bredemeier as an art restorer, carver, and framer for the next fourteen years. During that time, Pratt studied with painter William B. Rowe and sculptor William Ehrich at the Art Institute of Buffalo. In 1939, he won the Best Landscape award at the Western New York Exhibition hosted by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo.

In the 1950s, Pratt began to actively exhibit his work. This expanded his following in the art world, especially in western New York and the mid-west. In 1992, Burchfield-Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College put together a special retrospective highlighting Pratt's works from 1939 to 1991. In 2007, the Burchfield Nature and Art Center Gallery in West Seneca, New York, hosted a special exhibited entitled The Vision of Watercolor with works by Pratt and three members of his family (Michael Pratt, Sarah Tobin, and Susan Rudnicky). Pratt died in Holland, New York on 21 November 2010.

Pratt won several prestigious awards including Best Landscape in Oil at the 1939 Western New York Exhibition hosted by the Albright Art Gallery and the 1941 New York State Fair Purchase Award in Syracuse, New York. He also won the Watercolor Purchase Award at the Butler Museum of American Art National Exhibition in 1954.

Exhibitions

His works have been displayed in numerous one-man gallery shows and special exhibits including:

Twentieth Century Club in Buffalo (1940) Art Institute of Buffalo (1948) The Artist's Gallery in Buffalo (1981) The Barbara Schuller Gallery in Buffalo (1990) Anderson Gallery in Buffalo (1991) Pratt retrospective exhibit at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo (1992) Special exhibit, “David Pratt: A Portfolio” at the Norberg's Art Gallery in East Aurora, New York (1999) Rural and Urban Morphology Gallery in Buffalo (2003) Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo (2004) Richmond Memorial Library Gallery in Batavia, New York (2004) Watercolor Synergy GoArt Gallery in Batavia (2004) Norberg's Art Gallery in East Aurora (2005) Special exhibit, “A Life in the Arts” series at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo (2006) Special exhibit, “The Vision of Watercolor” with works by Pratt and his family at the Burchfield Nature and Art Center Gallery in West Seneca, New York (2007)