Modern Times

A sprawling city unfolds across the canvas, its buildings and crowds rendered in muted colors beneath a sky glowing red. Streets, windows, and architectural details crowd together, building a dense sense of urban life packed into one view. The painting, titled Modern Times, was made by Ralph Fasanella in 1966 using oil paint, and it is held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it came to the collection as a gift from Maurice and Margo Cohen of Birmingham, MI. Fasanella, an American painter and trade unionist who lived from 1914 to 1997, also created the notable painting Subway Riders. One detail worth lingering on is how the red sky presses down over the packed rooftops, giving the whole scene a tense, charged atmosphere despite its quiet, muted palette elsewhere.