The Rosenberg's: Grey Day 1963

Ralph Fasanella created this flat, illustrative image, The Rosenberg’s: Grey Day, with oil paint. What I find so evocative about it is the way the artist combines a child-like, seemingly naive style with a clear political narrative. The way the buildings are rendered feels very close to the surface of the painting – it’s almost as though they’ve been lifted straight from a storybook and placed into this sombre, grey scene. It makes me think about the power of art to communicate complex ideas in an accessible way. How the artist grapples with issues of social justice, capturing the tension between public and private, the personal and political. The more you look the more you find! A perfect illustration of how folk art provides such a potent means of expression, offering new ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world.