In the Spirit of Art: Tasteful dwelling in the Irish Channel
The affable Cole Pratt, who was well known for his Magazine Street art gallery in New Orleans and was beloved for his wit and passion for the arts, passed away in April at the age of 53 due to a heart attack, just after completing the renovation and interior design of his home with longtime companion Roy Malone, a decorator.
“The house had only been done for two weeks before he died and we just had 20 people over for dinner the night before. It was the only party we threw before he died,” Malone says. “Cole was full of life. He loved entertaining. We bought this house so we could entertain our friends and clients. No room has a single door. Every room has at least two doors, so it flows beautifully.”
Pratt’s gallery, which opened in 1993, represents southern artists encompassing a vast and varied selection of styles, mediums, and subjects. From classic impressionistic landscapes to abstract illusionism, Cole Pratt Gallery caters to diverse tastes. Pratt wished the gallery to continue after his death, and he made suitable arrangements for gallery director Erika Olinger to carry on the legacy. “Artists considered him a kindred spirit, collectors considered him more of a friend than an art dealer,” Olinger says. “To meet him once was like connecting with a long lost friend. He was generous with his time and his opinions, and he had a laugh that will be long remembered.”
The New Orleans Museum of Art recently presented a memorial exhibition of the artists Cole Pratt Gallery fostered. NOMA director John Bullard called the exhibition, A Tribute to Cole Pratt Gallery: The First Fifteen Years, 1993-2008 to instill the thought that the gallery will continue. “No other gallery has had a retrospective at the New Orleans Museum of Art that I remember in the 17 years that I have been in New Orleans,” Olinger comments.
Pratt and Malone’s side hall shotgun residence in the Irish Channel was acquired in 2005. “We had just moved into the house and had put a new bathroom and kitchen in just before the storm,” Malone says. After the storm, to get the house to be livable, I had to focus on it 100 percent. We had to replace the roof. We basically rebuilt the house. I had all of the old window sashes taken out. I salvaged all the old glass and had it put back into the windows. We tried to keep the house as historically accurate as possible, including the molding.” The 2,000-square-foot home dates to the 1850s. “Cole and I both came from larger houses before. We really didn’t want another big house,” Malone explains.
The floors in the front of the house are the original wood floors, but the floors in the rear of the house are new pine floors. “They are stained the same color, but the colors didn’t turn out exactly the same because they are two different kinds of wood,” says Malone. “So I did a hand-painted floor in the hall, which makes it look like the same floor from the front to the rear.” The diamond pattern extends to the sitting area off the foyer, adding continuity to the space.
“It was originally a shotgun with a hall. At some point they did an extension. It’s like a slide-out in a mobile home,” Malone jests. “You can see from one end of the house to the other. We went back and forth as to whether or not we should take the extension down. But we decided that if we took the extension off, we wouldn’t have gained any usable exterior space. And it gave us another seating area.” The extension also serves as a breakfast room. In the corner of the sitting room, serving as a bar, is a chest that “I found on the street in New York when I was young and poor and in school,” Malone discloses. “I refinished it myself. It has seen many lives!”
Intriguing art is placed throughout the home. A vibrant Katie Rafferty artist proof resides over the mantel in the living room, which is embellished with a round ottoman. “That was a custom fabric. It punches up the room a bit. It was originally in my farm house upholstered with a plaid fabric,” Malone says. A pair of 20th-century English mahogany slipper chairs covered in raw linen face a classic Baker coffee table with a textured lacquer top from the 70s, creating a relaxed aura. “It was something that I had found and the colors worked. It’s not an old piece, but it was the right scale and the right color for the room.”
The dining room’s round mahogany English Regency dining table is complemented by Louis XV painted chairs with silk zebra upholstery, offset by a Chinese cabinet with fretwork doors. “It represents the four seasons,” Malone explains. “We use it for our crystal and china.” The jars residing atop the cabinet (near a pair of porcelain Chinese figures) were created by a contemporary potter “who travels to Africa and gets inspiration from African design,” Malone says.
“In the bedroom, I did something I call color blocking,” Malone explains. “Basically, the colors in my house are all the same colors; there are just different percentages of each color. I just changed the values of them.” The bed wall is a rich chocolate brown, which blends with the ebony stain of the pine floors. An English yew wood chest resides by the bed, which has a custom headboard in baby ostrich with antique brass nail-head trim.
“All the colors in the house, like the sofa, were from my farm house in Pennsylvania. They just happened to work with the historic colors of this house,” Malone concludes. “With an old house, there are always quirks you have to work with.” In this case, the quirks gave birth to beautiful settings created by Malone. And so, the memory of Cole Pratt lives on in the spirit of art and in the art of life. ✦
