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Humanities and Social Sciences Library > Collections & Reading Rooms > Print Collection  Benton Spruance (American, 1904-1967) The 1930s marked a resurgence of interest in American art, and during the Depression, artists and the public sought out distinctly American subjects, including those which commented on social issues. Benton Spruance was one of many artists, who found in printmaking a way to bring his American images to a wide audience, and in lithography, a medium capable of producing inexpensive editions of “art for the people.” While acknowledging stylistically and thematically the early influence of George Bellows, a master of both lithography and athletic subjects, Spruance quickly developed his own personal, expressive fusion of modernist simplification with the particulars of physical fact, as is apparent in Short Gain, a charged contest of gridiron gladiators. Short Gain was published by the American Artists Group, one of several
enterprises, including Associated American Artists, which issued editions
of prints, at the same time the Works Progress Administration was sponsoring
graphic arts workshops. According to Janet Flint in her essay in Art for All,
American Artists Group, organized in 1934, “hoped to popularize contemporary
American art by ‘taking it out of the luxury class’ and offering
it, through prints, to the public at very low prices.” Between 1936
and 1938 they published nearly 100 prints by more than 50 artists, each print
priced at $2.75. Photographic Services & Permissions Back
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