Art & Art Writing. With a foreword by Deborah J. Haynes, and copiously illustrated. This is the first book to appear on the late New York Porfiro DiDonna. In clear, straightforward prose John Baker, a friend of DiDonna's, surveys his life and art. Porfiro DiDonna died too early at the age of forty-four in 1986. THE SHAPE OF KNOWING comes out of Baker's over thirty-five year devotion to DiDonna's work. Here is a painter who dreamt of being a religious artist and who pursued his vision with near monkish discipline. Baker's portrait of this underappreciated artist is intimate and affectionate and, when it comes to DiDonna's work, broad, up close and celebratory. Michael Russem has given this book a design worthy of DiDonna's art and Baker's scrupulous attention to the artist's marks.