The 30’s—Windshield
Benton Murdoch Spruance American
Printer Theodore H. Cuno American, born Germany
Spruance, a noted lithographer, created several works with combat-related imagery and subjects during World War II. Here, he contrasted a dystopian scene portraying the horrors of modern industrial warfare, visible through the windshield, with an idyllic depiction of country life, pictured in the rearview mirror. In the latter, Spruance showed a couple reclining leisurely and a farmer tilling rolling fields beneath a sunny sky. This bucolic scene is replaced by a war-ravaged landscape populated by marching soldiers and skeletons, while women—possibly refugees—are burdened with heavy carts in their attempt to escape the volley of bombs falling from the sky. On the dashboard is a speedometer, its dial tilted right, implying that the car is racing straight into the nightmare ahead and away from the peaceful life.
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