The Surface of the Machine Billy Al Bengston moved from Dodge City, Kansas, to Los Angeles in 1948. His hands learned the textures of the West Coast through more than just brushes. He spent time as a professional motorcycle racer and a surfer, lives that brought the smell of gasoline and salt air into his practice. In the late 1950s and 1960s, he began working with materials that belonged in a garage rather than a studio. He used sprayed layers of automobile lacquer on aluminum sheets, applying colors that felt psychedelic and shapes that resembled mandalas. The work often carried the weigh…