Driving the American Dream

Abstract

One Sunday in fall 1953, Robert Rauschenberg placed a ream of paper on the road outside his studio in New York. He poured paint in front of a wheel of the Model A Ford belonging to his friend, the composer John Cage, and asked him to drive the car over the paper. The resulting Automobile Tire Print remains a remarkable work of art, which simultaneously questions the agency of the artist and the process of mark-making. It has been variously interpreted in the contexts of performance and conceptual art, printmaking, and semiotics. This article highlights the hitherto overlooked significance of the Model A for Rauschenberg. Parallels are drawn to Profile Airflow of 1969 by Claes Oldenburg, a relief multiple modeled on the Chrysler Airflow. In the course of exploring conditions of artistic collaboration and printmaking, both Rauschenberg and Oldenburg also activate icons of American car design.