Air Spirit
1932
Dudley Pratt
born Paris, 1897; died San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 1975
Seattle architect Carl Gould became a close friend and admirer of Pratt, the son of Boston's acclaimed architectural sculptor Bela Pratt and a fellow member, with Gould, of the University of Washington faculty. By the time he made this sculpture, Pratt had been creating ornamental sculptures for Gould's buildings for nearly a decade, especially for the buildings Gould was designing for the University of Washington. Among his works represented on the University campus are Pratt's reliefs on the exterior of the Henry Art Gallery and those on the School of Medicine building. Gould commissioned Pratt to make the bronze bobcat head decorations for the fountain in the Seattle Art Museum's Garden Court, and it is possible that Gould and Richard Fuller, the museum's founding director, further intended this streamlined metal sculpture specifically to complement the interior design of the new deco-style museum building.
Lead, steel, asbestos, and varnish
57 1/4 x 50 in. (145.42 x 127 cm)
Overall h.: 64 in.
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
44.626
Photo: Paul Macapia
