In his review of Jubilation/Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined, the new exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum, Ken Johnson neglected to mention that there are two paintings by Ralph Fasanella (American, 1914-1997), a self-taught artist whose large, detailed depictions of the urban working class critiqued post-World-War II America. An Italian immigrant who grew up in Little Italy, Fasanella was a zealous labor activist who worked tirelessly to make a better life for working men and women.
19501970, oil on canvas,
59 x 96 x 1 1/2 inches.
In the 1997 NY Times obituary of Fasanella, Robert Smith reported that
“from 1940 to 1945, Mr. Fasanella worked as a union organizer for the United Electrical Workers of the C.I.O., organizing the Western Electric plant in Manhattan. In 1944, a friend suggested that he take up drawing to relieve the arthritis in his hands. It worked, and he was hooked. He learned to paint after persuading the union to organize painting classes for its members and signing up. His first solo show was at the ACA Galleries on East 57th Street in 1948. One of his first sales was to the choreographer Jerome Robbins. During the McCarthy years, Mr. Fasanella was blacklisted and found it virtually impossible to find work. His wife, Eva Lazorek, whom he married in 1950, was able to support him by teaching school….”
Jubilation/Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined, organized by Stacy C. Hollander. american Folk Art Museum, New York, NY. Through September 2, 2012.
——-
Subscribe to Two Coats of Paint by email.
