Allan D'Arcangelo's highway paintings echo the post-World War II construction boom in America that expanded possibilities for individualized long-distance travel. Born in Buffalo, D'Arcangelo frequently traveled by car during the late 1950s between coasts and to Mexico City. In paintings like Overpass (1964-5), an overhead view of a roadway receding vertically towards the horizon is reduced to a limited color palette and simplified iconography. Graphic in nature, the geometric composition is both sublime and monotonous, and suggests a complex relationship to the American landscape also found in Ed Ruscha's photographs of Sunset Boulevard. D'Arcangelo's technique uniquely combines the cool sensibility of Pop art, the clear divisions and flat color planes of hard-edged painting, and the dreamlike settings of Surrealism, such as Giorgio de Chirico's metaphysical cityscapes.