Route 66 Met Pop Art: Ed Ruscha’s Gas Station on the Auction Fast Lane
A gas station in Amarillo, Texas, once just a pit stop on Route 66, now stands at the center of the art world’s attention. Ed Ruscha’s Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, painted in 1964, is the last of his monumental 1960s canvases still in private hands—and it’s about to hit the auction block at Christie’s, with expectations soaring above $50 million.
Ruscha’s fascination with roadside America turned everyday sights into icons, capturing the paradoxes of postwar optimism and commercial sprawl. This particular Standard Oil station, immortalized during Ruscha’s drives between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, became a recurring motif in his work, blending the mundane with the mythic. The painting’s journey—from a Texas oil heir’s collection to a MoMA retrospective and now to Christie’s—mirrors the restless movement of American culture itself.
As the gavel prepares to fall, Ruscha’s vision of Americana proves that even the most ordinary pit stop can fuel an extraordinary legacy.
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