Salvatore Scarpitta (American, 1919–2007) is celebrated for his sculptural renderings of objects in motion. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Scarpitta grew up in Los Angeles where he was first exposed to dirt track racing, a personal passion which would carry over to his work as an artist. In 1936, the artist moved to Italy, completing a degree at the American Academy in Rome. During World War II, Scarpitta enlisted in the Navy and worked as a “monuments man,” identifying monuments and historical landmarks to protect from Allied bombings, and cataloguing art stolen from the Nazis. When the war ended, Scarpitta felt a need to create work that alleviated the trauma of World War II. He did this by wrapping canvases in webbing found at Army surplus stores. These bandaged canvases gave his work a breathing capacity and acted as a metaphor for survival and death. In 1959, Scarpitta displayed his work at the famed Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome, in an exhibition that showcased the artist beside his peers and close friends: Franz Kline (American 1910–1962), Mark Rothko (American, 1903–1970), and Cy Twombly (American, 1928–2011). That same year, Scarpitta was approached by the American art dealer Leo Castelli, who convinced him to move to New York. Castelli and Scarpitta would go on to work together for 40 years. Although Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art dominated the art scene upon Scarpitta’s return to New York, his work always managed to stay on the periphery, a mix of Arte Povera and Americana. During this time, Scarpitta developed his work with race cars, a medium which displayed in physical form his belief in travel as a metaphor for life. One of his most important sculptures, Rajo Jack (1964), was a replica of a race car he admired as a child. His passion for race cars also extended outside of the artistic realm. In the mid-1960s he raced his own speedster at a track in New Oxford, PA. The car, no. 59, carried the logo of its sponsor, Leo Castelli Gallery. In the 1970s, Scarpitta began making sleds, another object in motion that carried a sense of nostalgia. From 1965 to 2001, Scarpitta taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The artist’s works have been exhibited at major institutions throughout the world, including four Venice Biennales, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian Institute.