Richard Alagna
b. 1925
From Brooklyn, NY
Artist / US Air Force veteran
Richard was an artist for decades after he retired from the US Air Force. He worked mostly in paint, but also has a mastery of photography and etching. He supplied a small book full of photographs of his artworks (see the first image below), so the ones included below are images of those photographs. He did not supply titles or dates for the art either, except the third image, which he pointed out is titled This is Not a Chair, a tongue-in-cheek joke because it depicts a chair.
Here, Richard tells a story about his bride and groom painting, the second image below:
“ I gave this picture ‘cause they’re married. But the mother-in-law was very upset. I said, ‘What’s wrong?’, and she said ‘Well, take a look.’ In the one that I gave them, his leg [extending off of the left side of the image], the leg is out over here [on the right side of the woman’s white dress], and she thought it was his penis. So, I said, ‘She should be that lucky!’ ”
Richard's Artwork
Click to enlarge