John Chamberlain's work is most often made from automobile parts, salvaged and arranged by the artist into expressive compositions. Chamberlain's use of the discarded parts to create sculpture mimics the appropriation of ordinary, even vulgar, material characteristic of the Pop Art movement. Familiar with seeing the shapes and colors of discarded cars outdoors, Chamberlain, whose roots are in middle America, home of the steel and car industries, views the automobile parts as found materials, appropriating their colors and forms. The work's title also relates to pop art's interest in popular culture: the name Red Ryder came from a red-headed cowboy in a comic strip that concluded the year the sculpture was made. The artist's dynamic compositions are also in close relation to the gestural brushstrokes of abstract expressionism; the curving and crumpled car parts create a dramatic sense of movement in Chamberlain's work. The artist chose crumpled metal sheets from auto bodies not for the ominous overtones of their origin, calling to mind violence and crashes, but for their colorful palette and ready-made quality that suited his evolving ideas about sculpture.

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