Miguel Sánchez
TEXT: MIGUEL ÁNGEL SÁNCHEZ / PHOTOS: PORTLAND ART MUSEUM
A few months ago we reported the exhibition about Ferrari which was held at the Design Museum in London. Well, tell you that the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York permanently exhibits a Cisitalia 202 GT or a fiat 500... Or that the designer of the Citroën DS He was a famous sculptor, it is not to discover anything new about the union between the automobile and art.
And it is that, well seen, designing cars is still a true artistic discipline. It is true that the forms are delimited by the function, but above all the lines of a car are something that directly appeals to the emotions.
Anyway ... Let's not kid ourselves: no matter how much a car ends up convincing us by the balancedness of its chassis or the perfect progressive delivery of its torque, to give two examples, if we have a huge illustration of this or that car in our house it is for the sheer beauty of its forms.
Shapes that, with a somewhat futuristic concept of driving and the machine, have always been linked to the visual sensation of speed. Perhaps for this reason, in the Portland Art Museum have decided to baptize their future exhibition as'The Shape of Speed ' -'The Shape of Speed'-, that brings together examples of car bodies streamlined from Porsche, Bugatti, BMW, Bentley, Voisin, Talbot-Lago, Adler, Cord, Chrysler or Mercedes, among others.
A sample in which through 16 cars and 2 motorcycles We are offered a journey through an era in which the development of large automobiles without concern for the checkbook went hand-in-hand with the artistic vision of the Art Déco.
ART DECO AUTOMOBILES: THE HAPPY 20's (and 30's)
For many, the decade of the 20s was a waste. An endless delirious party that, like all great nights, ended in a monumental hangover: the Crack of 29 that gave way to the convulsive 30's. A time in which the galloping economic growth promoted new aesthetic trends focused on extolling the productive elements, the symbols of progress, the machine ... And the power of the industry that already enthroned the dollar as the "only true god”, Which ended up paying dearly for his idolatry.
With this approach, the Art Déco; an attempt to make the everyday exceptional through the application of the most exquisite design to the devices of everyday life. In the heat of this movement, exciting metal-clad buildings such as the Chrysler in New York were born, new and original fonts for a multitude of publications and what interests us: gorgeous futuristic and aerodynamic cars.
And is that if something represented well that developmental euphoria, it was the car. A means of transport that, despite the launch of the popular Ford T in 1908, was still devoting large resources to the production of luxury cars, especially in Europe. True tanks in which the upper class exhibited their power and the increasingly numerous "Gentleman racers" his contempt defied death.
During the 20s, Art Deco experienced a golden moment that lasted well into the 30s, influencing body design with an avant-garde spirit where aerodynamics were conceived as an elegant succession of curved shapes. And that's not to mention the finishing of the interiors ... Where the imagination of these designers was also noted in a multitude of details.
But, let's better let us illustrate some examples of the next sample 'The Shape of Speed ', which as we said will be exhibited between the next days June 16 and September 16 ...
ART ON FOUR (AND TWO) WHEELS IN PORTLAND
With a selection of 16 cars and 2 motorcycles, the Portland Art Museum (USA) proposes a most illustrative tour of the impact of Art Deco on vehicle design. Why? Well simply because you have from the practical minibus Stout scarab -an experiment "Made in Detroit”On the idea of traveling as comfortably as possible- to a replica of the mythical -and lost- prototype of Bugatti Aerolithe. The latter was built on the basis of a Type 57, a real race car in full dress.
Very similar to the Bugatti, there is also a model from a brand that, although in recent times produced compacts of very rough shapes, being resurrected to liquidate the remains of the old SIMCA, previously signed authentic wonders such as the Talbot-Lake T150C SS.
However, and moving to the field of the two wheels, perhaps what we liked the most is the magnificent BMW R7. A motorcycle that did not go into series production but that in 1934 It stirred up more than one aesthetic approach by revolutionizing the world of two-wheel design by integrating the fuel tank in a very subtle way into the set itself.
A jewel that, until it was found and restored by BMW itself, it remained lost for 70 years! Anyway, if you are in the United States during the dates of the exhibition, make sure you visit the museum! 😉
