Vernon Pratt (NC, 1941-2000), SUN / CLOUDS

Acrylic on canvas, 1997, signed and dated at lower left, gallery-wrapped canvas.

22 x 30 in.

From the Collection of Ron W. Djuren, Durham, North Carolina

A native of Durham, North Carolina, Vernon Pratt attended Duke for several years before completing a B.F.A. and then an M.F.A. at the San Francisco Art Institute, under the tutelage of notable painter and printmaker Richard Diebenkorn. Pratt served as a professor of the practice of art at Duke from 1964 until his untimely death in 2000. After his death, Pratt’s body of work was transferred to a series of warehouses, where it remained for more than 15 years. In 2016, the Vernon Pratt Project formed around the aim of preserving the artist’s legacy.

Pratt participated in a major solo exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 1985-86. Recent exhibitions include posthumous solo shows at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design and the Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Gregg Museum of Art & Design, the Asheville Art Museum, the Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Duke University, the Durham Arts Council, Rochester Institute of Technology, North Carolina Artworks for State Buildings - a program of the North Carolina Arts Council, the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, the City of Raleigh, NCSSM and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Light spotting to the canvas.