1940 s at Pratt
Prior to America’s entry into World War II, the government launched a nationwide effort to train 20,000 pilots for civil defense. Pratt men and women immediately enrolled in the Institute’s training course and Pratt became the first school to put its students in the air. Pratt also launched one of the country's earliest programs dedicated to the design of industrial camouflage.
“ D uring the war we remained dedicated to the task of the school itself : to e x perience the best art and design had to offer .” — J oseph M arshall Parriott, I ndustrial D esign ’4 3
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GEORGE McNEIL Abstract Expressionist George McNeil, a self-described “Brooklyn street kid,” grew up riding the elevated train past the big sign for Pratt that heralded his future. McNeil’s frequent visits to the Art Reference Room of the Pratt Library during his formative years set him firmly on his path as an artist. McNeil enrolled in Pratt’s evening school as a teenager and won a scholarship to attend the Institute. There he entered the stream of Abstract Expressionism “through the back door of watercolor,” in an art course given by Anna Fisher that taught him to paint freely and express his emotions through art. In 1948, McNeil joined the Institute’s faculty to teach painting and direct the evening art school. He brought many modern painters to teach at Pratt— including Reuben Nakian, Franz Kline, and Philip Guston—and introduced a “History of Modern Art” course in the day school. He lived in Pratt housing on Willoughby Avenue, working for Pratt in the mornings and painting in his studio in the afternoons. McNeil retired as a full professor in 1975 but stayed on part-time until 1982. “I didn’t have any gallery success until 1981, so I lived off my teaching,” he said. A gifted teacher who was adored by his students, McNeil is now considered among the most influential New York School artists of his generation and is remembered for his humanitarian approach to art. Lynn Saville, photography, ’76, remembers the one mantra she heard George McNeil say again and again: “Never give in to failure of nerve.”
In 1948, Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, and Institute 1 2 5view an n i v eLyle r sSuter’s a r y vision p r aoftatDodgers-Yankees folio President Charles Pratt student World Series game, a dream that became a reality at the close of the decade.
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