FRAZER P. DOUGHERTY
PAINTER
b. Feb 20, 1944 Baltimore, MD
An active artist since the mid 1960s,a minimalist,studied with Tom Downing,active with Art Workers Coalition,co-creator of Q . And babies? A. And babies. (1970) with Irving Petlin and Jon Hendricks
In the early 1960s Frazer moved to New York City to become a painter. He immediately fell into the post abstract expressionist community of artists, many who still hung out at the Cedar Bar. His early stripe paintings and later spray works evolved within minimalism. He married his high school sweetheart, Marian S. Hunter (first a dancer, later a filmmaker). Their daughter was born in 1966. At the end of the 60s with a mix of artists, filmmakers, writers, critics, and museum staff, Frazer was active with the Art Workers Coalition (AWC). The group was initially sparked by at incident at MOMA. They created a statement of demands of artists’ rights.
In collaboration with Jon Hendricks and Irving Petlin, via the Coalition, Frazer created the 1970 Viet Nam War protest poster, Q. And Babies? A. And Babies. Initially to be made with MOMA, after the Board reneged on MOMA’s involvement, the Coalition then displayed multiple copies in a protest before Picasso’s Guernica. The poster, now in the MOMA Collection (along with numerous other museums), has been featured in significant exhibitions. For a long time it hung in MOMA’s curator, Kynaston L. McShine ‘s own office. He was one of the first curators of color in any major museum. (Note this recent article: https://rar.rutgers.edu/an-institutional-defensive-mechanism-how-the-museum-of-modern-art-institutionalized-critique-by-ricardo-chavez/)
With a (new) growing family in the early 1980s Frazer with his new partner Poppy Johnson (Women Artists in Revolution {WAR} and $100 Gallery) and their three children moved to Greenport on Long Island’s North Fork. First he placed solar tiles on the roof of their home, then started a home retrofitting business. Governor Pataki visited to view this first tiled solar system that sent solar energy back into the grid. Frazer established a new studio and took delight in being surrounded by water to fish — a long enjoyed pastime since his youth.
When he separated from Poppy Johnson in the early 2000s, Frazer moved to Sagaponack on the South Fork and established a new studio. After a trip to China his painting took a new lyric turn. Written up in the New York Times (Benjamin Genocchio, May 29, 2009) Frazer was in a show at the Parish Art Museum, Artists Picking the Artists. “[His] cryptic, puzzle-like paintings of random shapes and forms were selected by Mary Heilmann.”
Frazer now resides in Edmonds, Washington with mixed media artists, Suzzane Fokine. He is in Hospice care with lung complications.
In addition to the Museum of Modern Art, among the collections Frazer’s work is in are: Dominique de Menil; Smithsonian American Art Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Brooklyn Museum; Walker Art Center; Imperial War Museum (London); and Vassar College.
