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Exhibition History"The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball," American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY, June 17, 2003 - January 25, 2004.
"Subway Series," The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, July 21, 2004 - December 31, 2004.
Artist
Ralph Fasanella
(1914 - 1997)
Night Game - Yankee Stadium
Date1981
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsSight: 61 × 73 1/4 in.
Object numberN0001.2002
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Maurice and Margo Cohen
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextFor Fasanella, baseball was a way for people of all cultures, economic backgrounds, and occupations to come together for a common interest. Even if just for a moment, the mind is focused on rooting for a community of your peers, and the woes and pain of everyday life are put on hold. Night Game - Yankee Stadium is one of many baseball paintings, but it is the largest. The drama and pageantry of Major League Baseball are highlighted on this grand-scale image. Fasanella has harmoniously arranged the painting by tilting the playing field into a vertical position, enlivening the grass with flecks of paint and rendering the brightly colored spectators with joy and affection. The stadium opens onto the street in the foreground to welcome his viewers inside. Being an artist who is a social activist, and humanist at heart, Fasanella can turn even a casual baseball scene to show the surrounding urban areas in decline. At the left, Fasanella depicts a jail full of African-American prisoners, and the graffiti on the crane contains references to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Exhibition History"The Perfect Game: America Looks at Baseball," American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY, June 17, 2003 - January 25, 2004.
"Subway Series," The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, July 21, 2004 - December 31, 2004.
On View
On viewc. 1910