Changing City (Primary Title)
Benton Spruance, American, 1904 – 1967 (Artist)
Benton Murdoch Spruance’s Changing City is a study of horizontals formed of roofs, streets, clouds, and a blimp held in check by the recurring verticals of skyscrapers, street lamps and signs, and flag-topped poles. The chromatically modulating forms span the picture plane in a representation of the artist’s native Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s City Hall at center and the famed Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building at far right punctuate a view that is much unchanged today. At the same time, with the road, antennas, blimp, and gas pump, the artist enlists the city as a template for his evolving transportation and communication imagery. The urban and architectural subject matter closely ties this work with other contemporary Precisionist artists, such as Louis Lozowick and Charles Sheeler, who often depicted factories, buildings, and machines with an emphasis on line, bold contours, and localized colors.
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