LACMA

ShopMembershipMyLACMATickets
LACMA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
info@lacma.org
(323) 857-6000
Sign up to receive emails
Subscribe
© Museum Associates 2025

Museum Hours

Monday

11 am–6 pm

Tuesday

11 am–6 pm

Wednesday

Closed

Thursday

11 am–6 pm

Friday

11 am–8 pm

Saturday

10 am–7 pm

Sunday

10 am–7 pm

 

  • About LACMA
  • Jobs
  • Building LACMA
  • Host An Event
  • Unframed
  • Press
  • FAQs
  • Log in to MyLACMA
  • Privacy Policy
© Museum Associates 2025
Collections

Crash in Phthalo Green1984

On view:
Geffen Galleries, Car Culture
Horizontal oil painting of a highway overpass with two large bursts of orange and brown flame-like forms on the elevated roadway, cars below, and a pink and blue sky rendered in loose, gestural brushwork
Artist or Maker

Mexico, 1941-1989
Title
Crash in Phthalo Green
Place Made
Mexico, active United States
Date Made
1984
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
42 x 72 in. (106.68 x 182.88 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the 1992 Collectors Committee
Accession Number
AC1992.136.1
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
Contemporary Art
Curatorial Notes

The abstracted yet kinetic forms in his canvas depict a spectacular high-speed fiery car crash on a Los Angeles freeway under a seductively radiant California sky. In his iconic image of car culture in Southern California, Almaraz probes the unsettling psychology of the innate human fascination with images of catastrophe and violence.

Selected Bibliography
  • Fox, Howard N. Playing with Fire: Paintings by Carlos Almaraz. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2017.