Fortune Teller 1954

Benton Spruance made this lithograph, Fortune Teller, without a date, using lithographic crayon and tusche wash. The first thing you notice is that yellow-gold color which is so key here, right? Then, it's all about the marks, how they build the image. Some are solid, some are broken. It's like he’s feeling his way through the form. I love how the blocks in the background seem to float, and the way the horizontal lines on her chest both describe her clothing and flatten the picture. The whole thing has this really interesting texture, a roughness, that reminds me of the physical act of drawing on the stone, the way the crayon must have felt resisting the surface. See how the face is almost blank? The marks leave room for you to project onto the image. The fortune teller is unknowable, and the future is uncertain. I'm thinking, look at someone like Elizabeth Murray, with the way she also puts things off-kilter, like Spruance, making something familiar feel new and strange. It’s all about how a work can hold many possibilities.