HOLY WEEK-2023

An artist to represent us in Holy week is BENTON MURDOCH SPRUANCE, an American painter, printmaker, and architect. He was a pioneer in color lithography,

Born in Philadelphia in 1904. he was known for his innovations in color lithography with series of works relating to mythological and religious themes, as well as portraiture. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

An art scholarship took him to Paris, and while looking for art supplies one day, he discovered the workshop of French Master Printer Edmond Desjobert. What had been a passing interest in lithography soon blossomed into a life-long passion.

 To support his wife and two sons, Benton taught art at Philadelphia’s BeaverCollege and the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the College of Art and Design).

 In the twenties and thirties he was known for prints that one critic described as his "velvety urban scenes and 'social conscious' series," which chronicled the life of ordinary men and women at work and play.

 He was also a painter and draftsman who during this period took advantage of two Guggenheim fellowships to travel throughout the United States and Europe and sketch landscapes.

In the forties Benton began producing moody, psychologically charged lithographic portraits of women, followed by mystically tinged work, based on biblical passages, that became increasingly subtle and sculptural in effect.

Despite the demand for his work (he produced more than 500 lithographs during his career),Benton continued to teach.

 At the time of his death in 1967, he was chairman of the art department at BeaverCollege and had recently retired from the chairmanship of the printmaking department at Philadelphia College of Art.

Works:  Behold the Man (1947)

             Black Friday (1958)

             Pieta- from the Sea (1943)