Artistic Style. Frances G. Pratt specializes in site-specific sculptures that convey a sense of optimism. Inspired by forms found in Nature and human activity (such as sailing), Ms. Pratt experiments with different relationships of curves, straight lines and volumes. This exploration produces flowing and energetic shapes distilled into an individual organic or geometric sculpture that responds to the client's criteria for the site.
The Challenge of Site-Specific Sculpture. Articulating thoughts about her interest in site-specific sculpture for institutional and individual clients, Ms. Pratt explains, "I enjoy the creative stimulus of interpreting and developing in three-dimensional form the goals and desires of the client. It is invigorating to exchange artistic ideas with the client and to collaborate with an architect, landscape designer, interior decorator and fabricator. I like the challenge of designing all forms of sculpture: small, large, for outdoor plazas, gardens and patios, and for indoor lobbies, atriums and walls." Ms. Pratt's achievements led Boston Magazine to cite her as "one of the most exciting faces and names to watch" in 1993.
Commissions.
Ms. Pratt's large-scale sculptures include LEADING EDGE, commissioned in 1990 by New England Telephone and now sited in front of the Verizon engineering headquarters in Marlborough, Mass.; SYNERGY, commissioned in 1993 by Connecticut College, New London, Conn., for its campus entrance plaza; and ON COURSE, a 1997 work on the roof of the Interfaith Chapel at Babson College, Wellesley, Mass.
Ms. Pratt has also executed residential garden, patio and wall sculpture commissions for private homes in Massachusetts (Brookline, Cambridge, Marblehead, Martha’s Vineyard, North Egremont, South Dartmouth, and Westport), as well as in Bar Harbor, Me., Houston, Tex., Jaffrey, N.H., Easton, Md. and Vero Beach, Fla.
In addition, in 1998 Neiman Marcus commissioned the execution of RIBBON DANCE for the interior of its Northbrook, Ill. store.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City displayed SPRING FLING, one of Ms. Pratt’s vase sculptures, in its lobby in 1989.
Numerous small sculptures have been loaned for display in corporate offices in the Boston area, including those of Charles River Associates, Equitable Real Estate, Fiduciary Trust Company, Meredith & Grew, Inc., and the Federal Reserve Gallery.
Ms. Pratt has also exhibited her small sculptures extensively in one-person and group shows in galleries in Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C.
