Memorial 1950

Benton Spruance made this haunting image, ‘Memorial’, using lithography, a process involving drawing on stone. The limited colour palette here, its greys and beiges, create a sense of quiet unease, like a faded photograph from a forgotten era. Look at the texture closely. See how the surface is built up through layers of fine marks and subtle gradations. The faces seem to emerge from the very grain of the stone itself. There’s a strange beauty in the way the artist coaxes these ghostly figures into being. Notice how each face is so different. The eyes, like dark pools, draw you in and hold you there, suspended. Spruance’s printmaking reminds me of Kathe Kollwitz and her unflinching depictions of grief. But where Kollwitz is full of pathos, Spruance is more ambiguous, leaving us to navigate the darkness for ourselves. Art is not about answers, but about sitting with the questions.