ZINGARELLA de ARDSLEY
As spring turns to summer and we emerge from an isolation that was unimaginable eighteen months ago, it is appropriate we turn our gaze to the vibrant and alluring portrait (shown below) entitled Zingarella painted by Ardsley artist Ralph Fasanella (1914-1997), whose 20th-century works (or perhaps visions) continue to both fascinate (no pun intended) and appear more “relevant and revelatory” in 21st Century America. [1]
According to an oral interview with Fasanella, Zingarella is Italian slang, learned from the artist’s father, for a lively, vivacious woman. [2] As one commentator on Zingarella observed:
“Among her accessories are a spray of flowers covering her midsection and an open purse in her hand, symbols of regeneration, rebirth and sexuality.”
Notably, Fasanella’s display of vases of flowers in Zingarella’s midsection recalls a similar effect used by Mexican artist Frieda Kahlo who filled her colorful portraits with garden motifs and jarring anatomical imagery.
In an essay written in conjunction with a 2002 exhibition of Fasanella’s work at the New-York Historical Society, author Stephen May explained that Zingarella:
“supplied the title for Fasanella’s depiction of an elaborately dressed, comely young woman posed before a large window opening onto his verdant Ardsley backyard. The image was based on a print of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s “Agostina” that hung in Fasanella’s new [Ardsley] studio.” [3]
Corot’s Agostina (ca. 1866) (shown below) hangs in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Its artistic significance is discussed by the National Gallery of Art’s curator of French painting in the audio section of this link: Agostina.
In a recent email to the author from Ralph’s son Marc Fasanella (Ardsley High School Class of 1982) [4], explained the following about Zingarella:
“Depicted behind her is the front/side yard of the house I grew up in at the end of Chester Street. It is the view of my father’s downstairs studio window facing across the street (now entirely covered in foliage).” We had a “housekeeper” who became an extended member of the family named Antoinette who was also an inspiration.”
Beginning in 1964, the Fasanella family first lived in Ardsley at 1139 Dobbs Ferry Road (where it is likely Fasanella finished the visually powerful and epic “American Tragedy” created in response to the “Murder Most Foul” of President John F. Kennedy) [5] then 32 Captain Honeywell’s Road before moving in 1971 to a new house at 15 Chester Street. [6] With writer and graphic artist Naomi Johnson, Marc Fasanella has recently re-launched fasanella.org, which opens with the online exhibit entitled “American Tragedy.” [7]
Zingarella was painted in 1973 at perhaps at the height of Fasanella’s initial rise from artistic obscurity to national fame resulting from his appearance in his Ardsley studio on the cover of New York Magazine’s October 30, 1972 edition which contained the following: “This man pumps gas in the Bronx for a living. He may also be the best primitive painter since Grandma Moses”
Fasanella scholar and aficionado Dr. Paul S. D’Ambrosio related that:
“Zingarella is a fascinating painting and unique in Ralph’s body of work. He always told me that it was based on a number of women that he knew. The setting, of course, is the backyard in Ardsley with the new house at 15 Chester St. at the upper right. Marc has noted that Ralph did three significant portraits in 1972-73: Zingarella, Antionette in the Studio, and his portrait of Marc as a young boy. They each have a distinct story, but together they represent the best portraits of his career.
It is easy to see why Agostina was so appealing to Ralph. He loved Corot, a great realist painter, and Agostina was one of Corot’s best images of an Italian peasant woman. What better inspiration for a lovingly rendered image of women Ralph knew and admired? It’s worth noting that Agostina was only one of many artworks in Ralph’s studio. He was an image hoarder, and the studio walls were chock full of photos, art images from books and magazines, and news clippings. It was one of the most inspiring places I can recall having been in.” [8]
The acclaim following New York magazine’s “discovery” of Fasanella allowed him to sell his gasoline station and focus entirely on painting (although his wife Eve’s steady job as a schoolteacher was the chief means of support of the Fasanella family during their early years in Ardsley, and it was her ability to obtain a loan of six thousand dollars that enabled Ralph and two friends who could not find work due to their radical past to buy the gasoline station). The use of the term “primitive” was unfortunate and easily dismissed by Fasanella, who was quoted as saying: “I may paint flat, but I don't think flat.” Far from being primitive or “folk” art, many of his works are encyclopedic in scope, imbued with history and symbolism, and replicate the complexity and rich detail of European masterpieces such as “The Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymous Bosch. [9] His obituary in the national edition of The New York Times noted that “In Madrid, the sight of some of William Blake's etchings sparked his interest in art.” [10]
Nearly a quarter-century after his death, Fasanella’s oeuvre continues to command attention in grade school curriculums [11] to scholarly forums. [12] From April 1, 2022 - September 17, 2022, the Fenimore Art Museum (in Cooperstown, NY) where Paul S. D’Ambrosio (whose Ph.D. dissertation (“Ralph Fasanella - The Making of a Working-Class Artist”) became a comprehensive biography published by the Fenimore Art Museum in 2001 entitled “Ralph Fasanella’s America”) is the CEO and President, will present an exhibition entitled: “Ralph Fasanella: Americans Unseen.” [13]
The homepage of the Ardsley Historical Society’s website contains another of Fasanella’s “Ardsley” inspired pieces, 1969’s Across the River.
According to his son Marc in an email to the author:,
“Across the River best evokes [my father’s] idea of what moving to Ardsley represented. In the foreground is the Bronx neighborhood he knew as a youth as it evolved from wood-frame houses to apartment blocks hemmed in by Robert Moses expressways. At the water’s edge on the other side of the Hudson are the factories of Hastings and Irvington, where he worked as a union organizer in the 40’s or 50’s. Beyond that, the river winds back around with leafy Ardsley of the 1960’s on the left and right. The painting does not depict a geographic reality, but it depicts his mental conception of what the ideal of moving out of the city to the suburbs meant. [Across the River] is also one of his most (or perhaps his most) accomplished folk paintings. It hangs in my living room.”
As reported in the October 22, 1943, Herald Statesman newspaper (the predecessor to The Journal News), Fasanella successfully organized the Anaconda Wire and Cable Company workers in Hastings to join the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, CIO. Fasanella is quoted in the article as follows: “The union is gratified that Anaconda workers voted so overwhelmingly for its programs of making the necessary improvements to increase this vital war plant’s effectiveness in helping to win the war. [14] Negotiations will begin in about a week, he said. The union will seek “equal pay for equal work among both men and women,” proper classification and inclusion of the incentive plan, among other points.”
In 1949, Fasanella ran as a candidate of the American Labor Party (ALP) for New York City Council’s 20th Senatorial District (representing East Harlem and Yorkville). Heading the ALP's ticket for mayor of the City of New York was “radical” seven-term Congressman Vito Marcantonio who is featured in two of Fasanella’s paintings including 1972's stunning “Lucky Corner” shown below. [15]
Two decades after Fasanella’s passing, in 2017, the “Lucky Corner” at 116th and Lexington Avenue in East Harlem was named for Fasanella’s hero, Vito Marcantonio. [16] It is somewhat preternatural that the once forgotten (and red-baited) Marcantonio, who like the once little-known and blacklisted Fasanella, is undergoing his own rediscovery by a new generation of Americans. Undoubtedly the remembrance of this notable corner of local history is due in large part to the unchanging principles that guided Fasanella’s life and works found on his self-penned epitaph at his grave in Mount Hope Cemetery in Hastings:
Lest We Forget
Remember Who You Are
Remember Where You Came From
Don't Forget the Past
Change the World [17]
Endnotes
[1] https://www.outsiderartfair.com/artists/ralph-fasanella/featured-works?view=thumbnails The high resolution image of Zingarella and the works Fasanella painted in Ardsley appearing in this article were provided courtesy of the Estate of Ralph Fasanella and can be clicked to enlarge.
[2] Fasanella’s father delivered ice for a living in New York City (where he was accompanied on his routes by a young Ralph Fasanella). Although speculative, it is tantalizing to imagine some of the ice Fasanella’s father had on his delivery truck came from the Ardsley Ice Company’s Woodlands Lake ice harvesting operation after it was loaded on rail cars which ran south along the track of the Old Putnam Division railroad to the Bronx discussed in the April 8, 2021 Timepiece post. Some of Fasanella’s finest and most arresting early canvases depict this backbreaking line of work Iceman Crucified #4
[3] https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/ralph-fasanellas-america-2/
[4] Marc Fasanella holds a Ph.D. in Art & Art Education from New York University and was a professor of Art and Architecture, as well as Environmental and Graphic Design for three decades. He has also worked extensively as a design build specialist in wood and landscape, independent curator, and non-profit director. Dr. Fasanella has written and lectured extensively about his father.
[5] "Murder Most Foul" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and the 10th and final track on his 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). It was released as the album's lead single on March 27, 2020, through Columbia Records.The song, released during the maelstrom of the Covid-19 pandemic, addresses the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the context of American political and cultural history. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Most_Foul_(song)
[6] An article titled “Fanfare for an uncommon man” in the Journal News (June 21, 2001) about a major retrospective of Fasanella’s works at the Fenimore Art Museum, begins as follows: "To be a good painter," Ralph Fasanella once said, "you have to love people." Ralph Fasanella loved people - the patrons at Harry's Luncheonette in Ardsley and Nathan's Famous of Yonkers; garment and millworkers; union organizers and demonstrators; gas station attendants and political leaders; baseball players and the fans who adore them.” Harry’s Luncheonette was itself the subject of one of Fasanella’s paintings. Harry's Luncheonette 1983 Harry’s was located in the strip mall where CVS is now located on Saw Mill River Road. The painting has been compared to Edward Hopper’s iconic “Nighthawks.” https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111628/nighthawks
[7] http://www.fasanella.org/exhibits/ In an essay in the exhibition’s catalog about the American Tragedy painting, the author (D’Ambrosio) observes: “Of all the artists who painted protest scenes, none was closer to Fasanella’s style than the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). Fasanella’s large protest paintings owe a great deal to Rivera’s influence.” Notably, Rivera was married to Frieda Kalho.
[8] Email to the author (June 9, 2021)
[9] Garden of Earthly Delights triptych Many of Fasanella’s political works, which often fuse local and national history, are similar in theme to Ardsley “folk” artist Anthony Radomski ‘s leatherworks which also depict major events of local and American history and share Fasanella’s pointillististic style. They can be viewed in Ardsley’s Village Hall and are also featured on the Ardsley Historical Society’s website which also contains a short video about his life and art. Coincidentally, both Fasanella and Radomski, were children of immigrants, left school after the 8th grade, and began their artistic endeavors in the 1940s.
[10] Ralph Fasanella, 83, Primitive Painter, Dies. Dec. 18, 1997, Section B, Page 14
[11] https://folkartmuseum.org/content/uploads/2014/09/Curric_FAR_6-12.pdf
[12] Fasanella’s art was the subject of the 2021 Susman Lecture sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Brigades Archives.https://alba-valb.org/alba-programs/susman-lecture/ Fasanella fought in the Spanish Civil War with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the 1930s. An oral history of his time in Spain can be heard at this link https://wp.nyu.edu/albaoh/ralph-fasanella/ Bosch’s triptych (discussed above) was housed in El Escorial outside Madrid for 342 years and then moved to The Prado in Madrid in 1939, It was possibly seen by Fasanella during his time in Spain. As a child of immigrants, Fasanella always felt connected to Europe, especially when living on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village which was heavily Italian. According to his Wikipedia entry, he helped his mother publish and distribute a small Italian-language, anti-fascist newspaper to help support the family.
[13] https://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org There are two additional books on Fasanella’s art: Patrick Watson, Fasanella’s City: The Paintings of Ralph Fasanella, with the story of his life and art (New York: Ballantine Books, 1973) and Marc Fasanella, Images of Optimism (Portland, Oregon: Pomegranate, 2017). Images of Optimism is available from the Ardsley Historical Society.
[14] However, almost 25 years later, in April 1966, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Fasanella were listed as two of many Rivertowns residents who sponsored an advertisement in the Dobbs Ferry Sentinel calling for voters to support candidates in any upcoming election who agreed to, inter alia, work vigorously to achieve a cease-fire and end the war in Vietnam.
[15] “In contrast to the mood of the crowd and speakers at Lucky Corner, the painting opens up to show a wide swath of New York City – both tenements and high-rises - going about its daily business. “I wanted to show that the city goes on anyway,“ Fasanella recalled, thus making the city itself the subject of the painting. As in many of his works, even the most important and dynamic individuals are dwarfed and defined by the rhythm and scale of the urban environment.” http://www.laborarts.org/exhibits/fasanella/exhibit “Beginning in the 1920s, Congressman Fiorello LaGuardia held election-eve rallies at this intersection of Lexington Avenue and 116th Street, on East Harlem's "main street." His rallies drew many thousands of New Yorkers who supported his efforts as congressman and mayor to improve the quality of life for working people and ethnic minorities, and to modernize the city's government and infrastructure. This storied intersection became La Guardia's "lucky corner" as he achieved election victory after victory. His third term as mayor ended in 1945. La Guardia's political protégé Vito Marcantonio continued the Lucky Corner tradition during his years as a Congressman representing a district that included East Harlem (1934-50).” Lucky Corner
[17] Fasanella is buried alongside his wife Eve (1920-2006) where the base of her headstone contains the following inscription: “She Made It Happen.” Fasanell’s headstone inscription reads:“The People’s Artist.”