Park Avenue Cars Series

1969–1974/2024-ongoing

The Park Avenue Cars series has been an ongoing project for nearly 70 years. It began in the late 1960s, shortly after Janet Ruttenberg moved to New York. Standing on Park Avenue, she was captivated by the stream of vehicles passing beneath the towering skyscrapers. The cars’ reflective surfaces caught fragments of clouds and cityscape, superimposing them onto the vehicles and framing their passengers.

Car Panels installed in the East 11th Street studio, photographed by Malcolm Varon, 1977

Ruttenberg in the East 11th Street studio, photographed by Malcolm Varon, 1977

One of the original 6-panel editions of Car Panels, photographed by Malcolm Varon, circa 1977

For the first four car panels editions, Ruttenberg used the materials available to her at that time: Stainless steel, mirrored plexiglass, car paint, photo screenprints and paper etchings. Each material forms a layer, in what the artist refers to as an "etching sandwich."

Panels 10-12 in the East 11th Street studio, photographed by Malcolm Varon, circa 1977

Window prints, photographed by Fionn Reilly, 2024

The window prints capture miniature human dramas: a couple mid-argument, a child in the back seat, a dog leaning into the breeze. In some panels, photo-based screenprints are layered over etched forms, projecting archival fragments of iconic Park Avenue buildings into these imagined scenes.

Exhibition view at University of Dubuque with 6-panel composition, Unknown photographer, 1976

Selections from the Park Avenue Cars Series have appeared in exhibitions at the University of Dubuque, the Flint Institute of Arts in 1976, a major installation at the Union Carbide Building on Park Avenue in April 1977, and ArtYard in 2019. They are also part of the collection at the Brooklyn Museum.

Panels 13-14 on view at Union Carbide Exhibition, April 1977.

April 1 – 28 1977 exhibition in lobby of Union Carbide Building, 270 Park Avenue.
Panels 8-12 along the South Lobby, Unknown photographer

Beyond the four editions of 6-panel Cars, Ruttenberg completed more than six unique works and a monumental 14-panel mural (Untitled, 1977). In 1979, while Ruttenberg was developing new editions and unique works from the series, her pursuit was interrupted by a studio move from East 11th Street.

Explore the 1977 Car Panels mural

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14-panel Park Avenue Cars, photographed by Tom Powel Imaging, 2024

The unfinished materials remained in crates for decades, until the construction of a large-scale workspace at Tinicum Farm was completed. In 2024, Ruttenberg revived the project, finishing 4 more editions in the Car Panels series as well as two new murals.

The Park Avenue Murals (2024–ongoing) use large-scale video projection to turn walls into frames for the frieze of panels. They embody the often unnoticed choreography between the cityscape and time.

Detail of 14-panel Park Avenue Cars, 2024

Proposal image for public installation of Park Avenue Cars, Janet Ruttenberg Studio, 2025