And the Stranger Acquires Still More Partisans in the Way of Silence 1957

Benton Spruance made this lithograph titled, And the Stranger Acquires Still More Partisans in the Way of Silence, using grease crayons and tusche wash to build up the image through layers of tone. There's an incredible range of texture and depth in what is essentially a black and white image. The real magic, for me, lies in the push and pull between the figure and the background. Spruance uses these almost abstract areas of shadow to carve out the form. The softness of the shadows around the figure’s face is beautifully rendered, creating a focal point. This then gives way to more graphic and expressive mark making around the body. I keep coming back to the way that he uses mark making to create the folds in the drapery, and how the direction of the lines gives the garment form and weight. Spruance was a contemporary of the social realist painters, but here he seems to be more interested in the formal possibilities of the medium. Someone like Kathe Kollwitz comes to mind, both of them exploring the tonal range and expressiveness of lithography. It really underlines how art is an ongoing conversation between artists across different generations.