Fasanella's City : The Paintings of Ralph Fasanella, with the Story of his Life and Art.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [distributed by Random House] , 1973., 1973. Fine. 1st American edition ;ix, 148 p. illus. (part col.) 31 cm. ; ISBN: 0394488237; 9780394488233 LCCN: 73-7269 ; LC: ND237.F26; Dewey: 759.13 ; OCLC: 667060 ; ; several full-color plates and one fold-out plate ; in photographic dust jacket ; decorative blind-stamped cloth ; "In the mid-1940s, Fasanella began to suffer from intense finger pain caused by arthritis. A union co-worker suggested that he take up painting as a way to exercise his fingers and ease the pain. In 1945, Fasanella persuaded the UE to organize painting classes for its members at a local college. He was one of the first members to sign up for classes. Fasanella became consumed by art, and left labor union organizing to paint full-time. To pay the bills, he bought a service station and worked there. Fasanella's painting focused on city life, men and women at work, union meetings, strikes, sit-ins and baseball games. He quickly developed a style which spoke to workers and the poor through the use of familiar details. Fasanella improvised a quasi-surrealist style, depicting interiors and exteriors or past and future simultaneously. He painted canvases as big as 10 feet across because he envisioned his paintings hanging in large union meeting halls. 'I always felt embarrassed by the whole thing,' he said, 'but I had to do it.' Fasanella's art was highly improvisational. He never planned out works, and rarely revised them. He said of his 1948 painting May Day, it 'just came out of my belly. I never planned it. I don't know how I did it.' "--Wikipedia ; FINE/FINE