Can a car be a piece of art? The curators of the two automobile exhibitions at New York’s MoMA Museum of Modern Art and the Detroit Art Institute do not aim to answer that question. But cars were certainly a cult in the twentieth century, and the design of some of them is admirable. The best examples show us not just a set of parts and mechanisms, skillfully “packed” in an elegant shell, they reflect the culture of their time. Take for example the “tail fins,” one of the symbols of 1950s America.
The Detroit Style
Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020 exhibit at the Detroit Art Institute runs through June 2021. Surprisingly, this is the first exhibition in 35 years (with the exception of one photo project from 1996) that the museum, located in the heart of American engineering, has devoted to the automobile. The collection features a dozen concept cars and production cars built in Detroit from the early 1950s to the present day, plus original drawings by local designers, plus things curator Ben Coleman has defined as “a small and well-crafted selection” of paintings, sculpture and other objects that demonstrate how deeply Detroit design is rooted in American pop culture. “To choose just 12 cars from all the ones that have been made over the years seemed almost impossible,” Coleman admits. – But we didn’t have a goal of telling the whole story of Detroit; we wanted to show just the most iconic cars. And to select them, we interviewed a lot of professionals. We weren’t interested in the speed champions or the best-selling cars, but rather in the cars that designers imagine when they close their eyes, or dream about. To give the exposition visual integrity, the organizers focused on sedans and coupes, excluding popular nowadays pickups and “parquet-cars”. If you wonder does a cold air intake make your car louder, read here.
The exhibits on display are truly unique. For example, the concept Firebird III of 1958 from General Motors – the apotheosis of “fin” style. Seven “fins” at a time! A rounded cockpit lantern, which echoed the lines of the body, makes this car almost indistinguishable from an airplane. Every detail of the Firebird exudes the optimism of the 1950s era and reflects its obsession with aviation and space.
The Probe IV, a 1983 Ford factory concept, is the exact opposite, with its streamlined silhouette (even the wheels are hidden behind metal panels) designed to improve aerodynamics and reduce fuel consumption, which was very relevant after the oil crisis of the 1970s.
The cars are a kind of history book. “Through these cars, you can feel the energy of different eras,” says Brandon Forot, head of Precision Design Studio and partner programs at FCA, who advised the Detroit Museum of Art in preparing the exhibition. – Pop culture had a lot of influence on cars, but they in turn left their mark on it.”
The MoMA Exhibition
The exhibition at MoMA is titled Automania and is scheduled to run from July 2021 to January 2022. It takes a broader approach to the selection of exhibits, and also seeks to consider the dark side of the general obsession with cars. The first thing visitors will see upon entering the room is a statuette of Picasso’s Monkey and Baby. The animal’s head in the shape of a toy car, which the artist borrowed from his son, is a metaphor for how deeply some things have penetrated our collective consciousness.
What follows is a very diverse array of artifacts and works of art. These include Andy Warhol’s 1963 Orange Car Accident, based on a shocking newspaper shot of a fatal car accident, photographs by Margaret Bourke-White, samples of interior upholstery created by artist Annie Albers, sketches by Frank Lloyd Wright, art posters, even road markings applied as the exhibit progresses. And, of course, the cars. There are seven of them, including a Volkswagen Beetle and a Ferrari Formula 1 race car. Five of the cars are housed in the museum’s sculpture garden. They are from the permanent collection of nine cars, and the 1965 Porsche 911 and 1973 Citroën DS will be on display for the first time. Read here more.
“Some people are surprised that we have cars in our collection,” says curator Juliette Kinchin. – But our museum has always strived to show the fullest range of artistic practices. Our first exhibition of cars was in 1951 (it was curated by architect Philip Johnson), at which time they were presented as “hollow, wheeled sculptures.” Even earlier, in 1934, as part of the “Machine Art” exhibition, the museum also exhibited some car parts – hubcaps, headlights, and so on. So we’re just continuing that tradition.”
The best examples of automotive design don’t just come from Detroit. Kinchin particularly singles out the Citroën DS, which was called the “goddess” (Déesse) in France, and philosopher Roland Barthes described the 1957 version in one essay as “a super-perfect object that fell straight from heaven.” In addition to its unusual appearance, the Citroën featured a number of technical innovations, for example, the high beam headlights were mechanically linked to the steering and followed the front wheels, and the balance of the hydro-pneumatic suspension allowed it to move even if one wheel was lost.
That said, the show doesn’t try to shrug off the problems the car poses, either. Photography and other media show street congestion, rising pollution, fatal traffic accidents, and the name Automania itself is borrowed from Halas and Batchelor’s grim 1964 Oscar-nominated animated film. You can see it here, by the way. One can’t help but wonder about the underlying meaning of these two exhibitions. Do we drink to the health of auto design or to its repose? Today, many creators resent the restrictions imposed on them in terms of safety, emissions, etc. With the advent of mobile platforms, we are increasingly calling a cab. So will the car remain as attractive as it once was when it represented speed, power, optimism, money, adulthood, sex and freedom? “Mobile apps and carsharing don’t change people,” says Brandon Forot. – We still want something nice and serviceable. Unmanned driving gives you a chance to rethink interior space, compact electric car engines take up less space – maybe that’s more freedom than constraint. I don’t think the jobs of car designers are in any danger.