50 Years of the Infamous Cadillac Ranch
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Cadillac, Cadillac
Long and dark, shiny and black
Open up your engines, let ’em roar
Tearing up the highway like a big old dinosaur
Bruce Springsteen
It is now an American icon. In film, books, music and art. It’s a cosmic place!
It’s not really an “abandoned” place, as I normally write about, but an interesting public art installation with a bit of a rustic, sometimes lonely feel to it, accompanied by an interesting history. One of the most famous public art installations in the US sits in the middle of a large dirt lot in Amarillo, Texas. The art installation, called Cadillac Ranch, was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were part of the art collective Ant Farm. The group had decided to half-bury 10 Cadillacs, 10 different models, which ranged throughout the years 1949-1963. The cars were buried nose-first into the dirt, and showcased the evolution of the car’s tailfins over the years.
Chip Lord and Doug Michels were architects, while Marquez was an art student at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. When Ant Farm was founded, it was meant to bring a different, unique architectural practice that strayed from the normal ways of thinking about and doing architecture. It was meant to help step out of the box of corporate expectations and visions, bringing and blending strange artistic styles and odd ideas into the mix. The group had connections to numerous eccentric millionaires, including Stanley Marsh 3, an artist, businessman and philanthropist. When he was asked by the group to help fund the Cadillac Ranch project, he responded “It’s going to take me awhile to get used to the idea of the Cadillac Ranch. I’ll answer you by April Fool’s Day. It’s such an irrelevant and silly proposition that I want to give it all my time and attention so I can make a casual judgment of it.”
