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Ralph Fasanella
American Tragedy, 1964
Oil on canvas, 40 x 90 inches
The symbolic “A” in this painting is smaller than the one in Grey Day, but like that earlier painting it is rife with images of injustice and evil. Paul D’Ambrosio recounts Fasanella’s story about the origin of the painting (originally to be titled The Tunnel of Lies): “I had Kennedy going into the tunnel and the American Legion and Barry Goldwater coming out of it.” See D’Ambrosio’s book for a detailed explication of the myriad images in this huge and hugely powerful canvas.
