Brit Micho, Associate Curator of Exhibitions
While beginning to curate Metropolis: Modernity in the Making, the work of Benton Murdoch Spruance caught my eye. The only work of his in FWMoA’s collection, World of One’s Own has strong stylistic similarities to the Post-Expressionist tendencies of New Objectivity in 1920s Weimar Germany. Spruance has an eclectic approach to his art, embracing different genres from still lives with Impressionistic sympathies to lithographs imbued with angular planes reminiscent of Cubism.
Based in Philadelphia, Spruance knew he wanted to be an artist from a young age, entering the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the fall of 1925. Spruance’s work at the academy awarded him a scholarship to study at the Académie Montparnasse, Paris, in 1928–a popular school founded by artist André Lhote, disciple of Paul Cézanne. Lhote’s work is sympathetic to Cubism and, while Spruance was familiar with his work, the influence of his style was not seen until the late 1930s-1950s.
Spruance is best known for his lithographs–a medium first introduced to him during his stay in Paris while visiting the famous printshop of Edmond Desjobert. His interest in lithography was originally sparked from a 1925 George Bellows exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he first noted the lively and rich possibilities of the medium. Atelier Desjobert was the foundation for Spruance’s printmaking knowledge and practice.
American Figurative Expressionism began in 1930s Boston, when a large population of German and European-Jewish immigrants came to the United States due to the unrest and persecution around Germany (and other parts of Europe) leading up to and during World War II. As a result, many artists and, therefore, their styles and influences, migrated to the United States.
European artistic genres and ideals were being explored in 1940s America, leading to new waves of Cubism, Expressionism, and exploration of avant garde practices stemming from Dada, Surrealism, and Social Realism. The east coast art scene was largely inspired German Expressionists like Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, and George Grosz.
Spruance’s style was eclectic–he encompassed many stylistic genres throughout his career, including Impressionism and Cubism. Closer to the 1950s, the shift in his stylistic choices became more evident. To compare and contrast the evolution of his style, we can look to Design for America No. 2. The footballers are tangled in a mess of wandering line and shadow, almost Baroque in its chaos, with figures dramatically stretching across the page. In comparison, Forward Pass, created almost a decade later, has stylistic choices that mimic the Post-Expressionistic tendencies in Germany in the 1920s, particularly those of Max Beckmann, one of the biggest names in the German New Objectivity art scene. While Forward Pass’s figures are just as chaotic as Spruance’s earlier compositions, they are easier to distinguish due to the reduced contrast and angular application of line. Not only was Beckmann a source of inspiration for Spruance’s stylistic decisions, but so too were Reginald Marsh, Carl Hofer, and George Bellows.
The mark of the German artists is evident in his work. Comparing Spruance’s Subway Playground to Beckman’s Descent from the Cross, the expressive, angular aesthetics of the stylized figures are similar, residing in a chaotic, yet organized environment. While subject matter ranges dramatically, the poses and angles found in the figures mirror one another, which suggests a clear inspiration from the Veristic New Objectivity style.
Different from Beckmann, Spruance plays with the inclusion of different geometric planes cutting through the composition, relating more formally to Cubism rather than Post-Expressionism. This influence could be attributed to André Lhote, the founder of Académie Montparnasse, where Spruance studied for a short period of time in the 1920s.
Spruance’s lithograph, A World of One’s Own, is unique in its positioning against German artists of the 1920s. An immediate comparison is to Otto Dix’s 1920 painting Kriegskrüppel (War cripples). Dix, another big name in New Objectivity, was internationally renowned for his grotesque depictions of post-WWI life in Weimar Germany. The artists associated with New Objectivity, specifically those labeled as Verists, depicted everyday life, no matter the untoward nature of the subject matter.
Spruance and Dix’s subject matter and style lineup–quite literally–with each other. Both artists depict inhabitants of the city captured in high contrast and heavy lines. Spruance gives the viewer a glimpse into the busy life of phone booths in the 1940s, each person confined to their own space, surrounded by advertisement signs, presumably for a drug store in their vicinity. Spruance’s figures appear more angular in this lithograph, heavily reminiscent of Beckmann’s stylized figures. The composition in which both Dix’s and Spruance’s figure are set relies on geometric shapes and angles to inform the environment. Differing from Spruance, Dix’s war veterans are set in a line outside of a boot repair service. Instead of separating into different ‘planes’, these figures interact with each other in an urban setting.
To see Spruance’s work, among others depicting early to mid 20th century urban life, visit Metropolis: Modernity in the Making before it ends on February 9th.