Sculptor and racecar driver Salvatore Scarpitta (1919–2007) grew up immersed in American car culture. In this photograph, Scarpitta zooms by in a mini sprint car he had built himself. Homespun, unpretentious dirt tracks like Hagerstown Raceway fueled Scarpitta’s interest in crafting and driving his own cars. “Racing cars were my way of showing that I, too, knew something of America,” explained Scarpitta in his oral history interview with the Archives of American Art. The artist fluidly shifted gears between the racing world and art world. Art dealer Leo Castelli sponsored Scarpitta’s sprint car team and also exhibited the cars as works of art.
This photograph is currently on view in our exhibition, Off the Beaten Track: A Road Trip through the Archives of American Art, on view through June 3 in our Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery in Washington, D.C.