The Long Night and the New Day: Lithographs by Benton Murdock Spruance

The exhibition featured lithographs by the artist Benton Spruance (American, 1904-1967), spanning his long career—charting the major shift in his style from the more specific and naturalistic renderings of the Depression era through World War II to his later, more abstracted and evocative work of the 1960s. In his works, Spruance often uses biblical stories and classical myths to evoke individuals struggling with enduring moral dilemmas.

The Long Night and the New Day tells two stories. The Long Night is the name of one of Benton Spruance’s signature lithographs—it is an impassioned protest of the dehumanizing effect of McCarthyism in 1950s America. The New Day refers to the advances that Spruance achieved with color lithography during his career, bringing about a revival for a medium that had not flourished since the turn of the century.