ART BY SALVATORE SCARPITTA, FROM VIVID PAINTINGS TO FAST CARS

The American painter and sculptor Salvatore Scarpitta has always seemed like the lost man in the lineup of durably famous artists - Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Frank Stell- championed by the legendary dealer Leo Castelli. Scarpitta, who was raised in Los Angeles and died in 2007, never quite took off as a postwar pioneer. But then again, he never pursued anything resembling a standard art career: He was an unconventional painter who became an untrained car manufacturer. Opening Oct. 14 at the Luxembourg & Dayan gallery, "Salvatore Scarpitta 1956-1964"will trace his evolution, from his traumatized-looking paintings made with bandages and bulges to a turn in his sculpture toward the mid-1960s in which his automotive fascinations began to spawn racecars, a few of which actually worked (and were actually raced). (Through Dec. 23; 212-452-4646, luxembourgdayan.com.)