Leah Dickerman: Here’s Robert Rauschenberg talking about this piece, Automobile Tire Print, which he made with his friend John Cage in 1953.
Rauschenberg: I was living on Fulton Street. Fulton Street is almost empty of any kind of traffic on the weekends. So I got some typewriter paper and glued them all together. And then I called John, and asked him, you know, like if he could come down on the weekend. And had some black house paint, which is what I was working with, And—And he drove down in his Model A. I poured it in—in front, and told him to drive just as straight as he could. You know, “Be careful,” I said, “Keep going straight,” you know? And—and John was fascinated by the fact that we were doing this. And he did a good job.
He was the printer and the press.