Artist Ralph Fasanella (1914 - 1997)

The Kennedy Years

Date1963

DimensionsFramed: 51 3/8 × 81 3/8 × 1 3/8 in. (130.5 × 206.7 × 3.5 cm) Sight: 49 13/16 × 79 13/16 in. (126.5 × 202.7 cm)

Object numberN0001.2005(01)

Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Eva Fasanella

Photograph by Richard Walker

Label TextPlaydome is Fasanella’s reflections on the youthful exuberance of the Kennedy years. Using a sports stadium as a means of organizing the composition, the artist fills the space with a myriad of details including baseball, tennis, track and field, equestrian sports, ballet, and more. The backdrop of the White House features a garden party and an amusement park ride where corporate entities grab coins from a rocket. At the center of the image, Fasanella has placed Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (executed as Atomic spies in 1953) in their jail cell. The social and economic injustice felt by the artist and embodied in these last images, appear drowned out by the frantic distractions of the world around them.

On View

Not on view