Living Rocks: Benton Spruance and the Lithographic Process

Arcadia University Art Gallery is pleased to present “Living Rocks: Benton Spruance and the Lithographic Process” on display through Dec. 17, 2017.

Benton Spruance (1904-1967) was an internationally recognized printmaker, educator and leading figure in the Philadelphia art community. Known during his lifetime as the “Dean of Philadelphia Lithographers,” his pioneering work in color lithography brought forth innumerable accolades, including two Guggenheim Fellowships. The exhibition explores Spruance’s commitment to the medium with which he was so closely associated by presenting the preliminary materials generated during the painstaking process of producing his completed works. Lithography (from the Greek word “lithos,” meaning stone) is a method for generating prints requiring multiple steps that involves drawing with touche, a liquid oil-based ink onto a block of limestone. The image is subsequently etched chemically into the stone’s smooth surface and its reverse is transferred to paper by placing the sheet atop the stone and running both through a press. On display will be examples of Spruance’s sketches (rendered in ink, pastel or paint), resulting proofs, and color tests alongside examples of the finished prints. These pairings have been selected to represent various stages of visual evolution throughout Spruance’s long and prolific career.

The show begins with samples from the 1930s and 40s that are distinguished by their rigorous, structural design and socially conscious imagery influenced by American Regionalist era artists such as Thomas Hart Benton. It then proceeds into an exploration of more gestural, abstracted mythological, biblical, and literary figures that dominated his later output. The context generated by these combinations will attempt to reveal how Spruance’s devotion to this demanding, step-by-step process impacted the development of his imagery.

Gallery Talk
December 6, 2017
Shelley Langdale,  Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia Museum of Art, will give a gallery talk about the works in the exhibition in the Benton Spruance Art Center on Dec. 6 beginning at 6:00 p.m. A reception —accompanied by tours of some of the Department of Art and Design’s newly renovated studio facilities, including areas of the 1966 addition to the art center overseen by Spruance himself— will follow immediately afterwards. All events are free and open to the public.