Anabasis 1957

Curator: Benton Spruance's 1957 lithograph, "Anabasis," presents us with a fascinating artistic riddle wrapped in shades of ochre. Editor: Ochre is the perfect word! It gives the piece a faded, almost dreamlike quality. Makes you feel like you are peering into some ancient tapestry unearthed in an attic. But I also feel like there’s an apocalyptic mood, maybe the dust settling after some massive clash? Curator: Interesting that you mention apocalypse, as Xenophon's Anabasis chronicles a fraught and perilous military expedition through Persia. Spruance often grappled with historical themes, especially narratives filled with existential weight. He engaged deeply with the history-painting tradition, using it to mirror the socio-political anxieties of his own time. Editor: Well, you know, chaos doesn’t change. What intrigues me is the abstraction amidst the figures. They are barely there, like faded memories or maybe figures glimpsed in half-light—very poetic actually, don't you think? There's this tension between legibility and dissolution that I find compelling. Curator: Precisely. It is abstract expressionism gently flirting with figuration, revealing Spruance's complex understanding of artistic idioms in postwar America. Notice the composition: how Spruance positions forms in space, how certain gestures resonate within the chaos. He creates a landscape that is both interior and exterior, both a depiction of events and a reflection of mental states. Editor: Absolutely. I get lost in that landscape; I love how open to interpretation the piece is. "Anabasis" suggests endless beginnings, departures that are perhaps not even remotely about arrival, huh? Like an internal migration that may have been happening for some time. Curator: Migration—spiritual, existential, artistic—strikes at the core of Spruance's inquiries. Well, this piece and our dialogue have provided ample material for thought, no? Editor: It certainly has. I’m still seeing things in the fading light. It's haunting, isn’t it? And absolutely gorgeous.