.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Allan D'Arcangelo's US Highway 1 series defined Pop Art's relationship with the American Landscape. Through the exaggerated viewpoint of the driver, the scenery on either side of the road is flattened into two-dimensional planes. The single-point perspective emphasizes the sense of speed as the viewer careens down a barren highway punctuated by reflective road signs that momentarily flash in the consciousness of the driver.
In his US Highway 1 paintings, D'Arcangelo explores the endless boundaries of the American highway. The ever-expanding landscape on the canvas is sliced by the infinite stretch of highway. Beginning in 1956, the International Highway System revolutionized the way Americans could travel throughout the country. By replacing winding state roads with the inter-state highway network, the road lost its location-specific markers. Instead, ribbons of concrete transported people and popular culture quickly and easily across the country. The road sign and billboard replace a geographical marker emphasizing the standardized language through which the road communicates with its viewer.
Evoking imagery of the open road and the expansive horizon of traditional American Landscape paintings, D'Arcangelo instead infuses the scene with his own brand of Pop. The Manifest Destiny that typified the nineteenth and twentieth century depiction of the American landscape painting is instead replaced with the domesticated and regulated highway culture of Post-War America. D'Arcangelo's infinitely repeating horizon re-enforces the loss of the American Landscape and its addition to the cannon of Pop Art themes.
In his US Highway 1 paintings, D'Arcangelo explores the endless boundaries of the American highway. The ever-expanding landscape on the canvas is sliced by the infinite stretch of highway. Beginning in 1956, the International Highway System revolutionized the way Americans could travel throughout the country. By replacing winding state roads with the inter-state highway network, the road lost its location-specific markers. Instead, ribbons of concrete transported people and popular culture quickly and easily across the country. The road sign and billboard replace a geographical marker emphasizing the standardized language through which the road communicates with its viewer.
Evoking imagery of the open road and the expansive horizon of traditional American Landscape paintings, D'Arcangelo instead infuses the scene with his own brand of Pop. The Manifest Destiny that typified the nineteenth and twentieth century depiction of the American landscape painting is instead replaced with the domesticated and regulated highway culture of Post-War America. D'Arcangelo's infinitely repeating horizon re-enforces the loss of the American Landscape and its addition to the cannon of Pop Art themes.