Artist

Ralph Fasanella

born New York City 1914-died Yonkers, NY 1997
Born
New York, New York, United States
Died
Yonkers, New York, United States
Active in
  • Ardsley, Westchester County, New York, United States
Biography

Ralph Fasanella celebrated the common man and tackled complex issues of postwar America in colorful, socially-minded paintings. Fasanella was born in the Bronx and grew up in the working-class neighborhoods of New York. He became a tireless advocate for laborers’ rights, first as a union organizer and later as a painter.

Fasanella’s parents were among three million Italians who immigrated to America in the early twentieth-century in search of a better life. They taught Ralph about the costs and rewards of hard work. The most lasting lessons they imparted were that family and community came before personal gain, that younger generations stood on the shoulders of those who came before them, and that all Americans could—and should—always fight for their rights.

Fasanella worked as a garment worker, truck driver, ice delivery man, union organizer and gas station owner before he committed himself to painting in 1945. Untrained as an artist, Fasanella developed an astute and accessible style meant to foster social empowerment. His large paintings were memorial tributes, didactic tools, and rallying cries that made the possibility of a better society palpable to his community.

Fasanella is often remembered for his iconic admonition: “Lest We Forget,” an impassioned plea to remember the sacrifices of our forebears.  In 2014, the exhibition Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget, united the artist’s most powerful works in a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of his birth.

Works by this artist (1 item)

Nancy Wolf, Expulsion, 1980, pencil on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the collection of Eric Green and Jock Truman, 1996.20
Expulsion
Date1980
pencil on paper
Not on view

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      Ralph Fasanella celebrated the common man and tackled complex issues of postwar American political life in colorful, socially-minded paintings. Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget celebrates the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth and brings together key works from a career spanning fifty-two years. Watch Marc Fasanella, son of the artist, and Leslie Umberger, curator of folk and self-taught art at the museum, as they shed light on the artist's life, family, and artistic career.

      Exhibitions

      Family Supper, by Ralph Fasanella
      Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget
      May 2, 2014August 3, 2014
      Ralph Fasanella (1914-1997) celebrated the common man and tackled complex issues of postwar America in colorful, socially-minded paintings.
      Media - 1970.353.1-.116 - SAAM-1970.353.1-.116_9 - 127238
      Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art
      October 21, 2016January 31, 2030
      SAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists.