There are certain works of art which, within their field, can easily be referred to by their name without any reference to their creator. For example, hardly anyone bothers to say “Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa” because pretty much everyone knows who painted that portrait. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band can be mentioned without reference to its creators, and most people will know what you are talking about. When a work of art is important within its field, everyone who cares knows who created it. Such is the story with Mad Cad. Commissioned by the mother of the Art Car, Ann Harithas, in 1978, Mad Cad is one of the Art Car’s most recognisable examples.

With mannequins, rhinestones, pink flamingos and a whole lot more besides, the immediate impression one gets from looking at this car is that it really goes the extra mile in a very literal sense as well as the metaphorical. The artist who created it said that his wish in doing so was the glorification of the mundane – “to apotheosize it and to make it grandiose”. Those who look at the car today could not fail to agree that that has been achieved. Oh, and if you are still wondering, his name was Larry Fuente.