Home » Cars Are Often Regarded As ‘Low Brow’ Art Among The Elite And It’s Complete Nonsense

Cars Are Often Regarded As ‘Low Brow’ Art Among The Elite And It’s Complete Nonsense

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When you’re surrounded by something, immersed in a given culture, it’s often easy to forget how that culture is perceived by outsiders. For example, cars form the very water in which I swim (were I a fish, which, thanks to a strict and complex drug regimen, I am not). This just means that sometimes I forget that there are people out there who don’t perceive cars as I do, which is to say as something more than appliances, as vehicles not just in a literal sense, but vehicles for all manner of human expression, culture, art.

Cars are embodiments of engineering and sculpture and graphic design and athleticism and sound design and so many skills and modes of art. But, not everyone realizes this, and there’s still many, many people out there who regard the whole of automotive culture as valueless schlock, exclusively populated with drooling barbarians. My own personal struggles with drooling aside, this idea is garbage. And yet, people still believe it, as I was reminded by an email I got last week.

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The email was from a reader named Wes, who told me this:

I got into a debate with some artsy friends after Torchinsky’s article about Claes Oldenburg, and the definition of art. None of them thought automotive design had any merit. I (obviously) disagreed.

I hate sneaking off to car shows because *certain friends* will call me a cretin for rubbing shoulders with the “yokels” that allegedly attend them, only to post photos on social media later that they seem to enjoy. It’s just obnoxious.

The art community will call a rotten banana duct taped to a wall “art,” but when it comes to the VW Corrado, the ass of which was inspired by the Bauhaus Movement, it’s just a product.

First off, Wes, you need better friends.

Really, it’s not your fault; I have some wonderful friends, but I personally have still encountered this attitude toward my interest in cars, from family, friends, strangers, colleagues, and more. It’s still a surprisingly pervasive attitude, that somehow cars or really any merging of art and engineering is no longer worthy of being considered “true” art, whatever the fuck that is.

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Once, in a painting class in college, I was making a kinetic piece that involved painted objects on clear mylar that would scroll over a background, a sort of not-still still life. It was a bit silly, sure, but I was young and hopeful. While talking about it with my professor, the professor from another painting class walked his old ass all the way across the studio just to sneer at me “they teach engineering at State,” referring to another local university.

Who does that? All because there was a motor involved? It’s ridiculous. But it’s real, and it definitely still happens to many people when they try to appreciate the artistic and cultural value of objects with engines and wheels.

But back to Wes and his jerky friends: Wes, if you confront your arty pals with this, and they push back and question my credentials, lemme just put that shit to bed right now: I have an Art History degree, and I know my shit. Put some Egyptian art on a wall in front of me and I bet I can tell you the time period within three dynasties, and if it’s Armana period, I can spot that across a fucking room. The pun with the feather glyphs used instead of the half bread loaf glyphs in the Offering Formula? I’ll talk about that shit until you cry.

You want to compare Arshile Gorky, Joan Miró, Wassily Kandinsky, and Alexander Calder while throwing darts? Bring it, bitches. I’m the dude who’ll remind you why you shouldn’t let a Dadaist iron your shirts, or what’s so funny about the pediments at the Palazzo del Te. Plus, I’ve had art installations of my own exhibited at the Arnolfini in Bristol, galleries in LA, the Walker Art Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and more.

[Editor’s Note: I hate to break this up, since Jason is clearly on a mission here, but I’m just going to poke fun at him for showing off. That’s all. -DT]

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Is my degree useless? Absolutely. Was it a colossal waste of money? Probably. Can I go toe-to-toe with Wes’ snobby-ass friends, art-wise? Fuck yeah I can.

Thank you for indulging my boasting, but I feel like this is one of those cases where I need to establish some credentials with the intended audience in order to get them to pay attention. The audience is full of people who still, somehow, are so mired in archaic, classist, regressive thinking that they still believe in bullshit like the division between “lowbrow” and “highbrow” art. Those divisions are just made up gatekeeping crap from art dealers with financial motives, or, perhaps even worse, simple human insecurity.

Rothmoore

Is Henry Moore’s Architectural Project more of a sculpture than Big Daddy Roth’s Beatnik Bandit? No. It isn’t. They’re both sculptures. The fact that one can sit on a vitrine and one can be driven simply doesn’t matter, because they both share the same fundamental goal: be a three-dimensional object that’s engaging and meaningful to encounter.

But what about the idea that cars are “products” or things designed for non-artistic use? Because they certainly are. Does that mean they don’t deserve to be treated as something more, when exemplary? If not, then perhaps we should yank this 15th century basin out of the Met, because it was designed to be a fish bowl or hold scrolls, or maybe we should just chuck the pre-dynastic Palette of Narmer out in the dumpster because it’s just a cosmetics-mixing palette.

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The truth is, to anyone who is actually paying attention, this debate was settled decades ago, and cars won over the snobs. The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) has been exhibiting cars for decades. Established, respected artists like Alexander Calder, Joseph Beuys, Claes Oldenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Chris Burden, and Andy Warhol and so many more have made car-related works for the better part of a century. This isn’t a question. The automobile can be art, full stop.

Calder

If you can’t accept that a lowrider painter like Theresa Contreras is a painter you can compare to, say, Clyfford Still, just working in different cultures and media, then the problem is you, not the art, not the artists, not the cars or the people who appreciate them.

Again, this debate is settled, and I don’t even think there’s a serious question about that. But — and the reason why this topic commanded an entire article from me — I understand that the idea is still pervasive and that, somehow, the appreciation of cars is considered by far too many base, uncultured, unsophisticated, and worthy of ridicule. Because I don’t need to prove my point that cars qualify as artistic objects, what I can do instead is point out how some really common areas of interest that are considered “classy” or “highbrow” or “respectable” to mainstream society are, really, no better than being interested in cars. Let’s do that:

Opera

OperaHard to get more classy than opera, right? It’s unquestionably art, and nobody would ever call you a “yokel” for going to the opera! But is it really that much more sophisticated than the love of automobiles? Let’s take a look at a synopsis of one of the most known and respected operas of all time, Wagner’s Ring Cycle, in this case the first Opera in the cycle, Das Rheingold:

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Das Rheingold features more gods than any of the three following ‘dramas’, and no mortals whatsoever! The introduction to the cycle, it tells of the theft of the magical Rhine gold and the forging of a ring by the greedy dwarf Alberich. He renounces love in order to gain the ring’s power, but when the ring is stolen by Wotan, the leader of the gods, to pay a debt to the builders of his new fortress, Valhalla, Alberich confers a terrible curse upon the ring. Anyone who does not possess the ring will covet it, and anyone who does will live in fear of losing it, and will ultimately be robbed of it and killed by its next owner…

Dwarves, gods, magic rings, Valhalla – this is just some D&D Lord of the Rings shit. It’s a Marvel movie with more singing. And that’s great! But does it really deserve to be so elevated over the appreciation of cars? Come on.

Wine

WinetasteNobody gives you guff if you’re really into wine, right? Everyone thinks that’s classy. You collect wine? Read wine magazines? Can talk endlessly about how you convinced yourself you taste bits of wood and flowers and shit in a boozy grape drink? Wonderful. Fantastic. Everyone thinks you’re a worldly sophisticate with big, deep, important opinions about wine. Congratulations, you really like grape juice.

How does this get more respect than being into cars?

Architecture

ArchdigestHave someone coming over and want to make them think you’re erudite without having to actually do all the work? Throw a few copies of Architectural Digest on your coffee table. Because appreciating architecture suggests a lot about you: you have taste, you like to travel, you appreciate the majesty of human achievement, and more. You can go on historical building tours in any city and, again, nobody will call you a yokel.

And sure, architecture is great! It combines engineering and art and the practical and the emotional. Remind you of anything? Yes, dummy, cars. Cars do the same damn thing, but at 60 mph. That’s dynamics and statics. If you’re someone who thinks architecture is worthy of respect but cars aren’t, you’re being a dick.

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Chess

Chess

It’s a game.

 

I think you get the point; society has arbitrarily decided that some pursuits are ones that confer status, and others are encouraged to be looked down upon. All of this is classist horseshit that should have died off long, long ago. In terms of the joy and enrichment it brings to people’s lives, an incredibly expensive collection of wine has no more cultural merit than someone’s treasured project car, even if it’s a fucking Chevy Vega. If you think this is something you need to debate or disprove, you should take that as a sign to look inward and try and figure out how you got to be such a jackass.

I’m done with all this classist bullshit, I’m done with anyone making any of you, car-lovers, feel bad or embarrassed of your passions, and, yes, I’m done with Wes’ stupid friends who called him a cretin. They can fuck right off.

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Everyone else, I hope you find delight in whatever art draws you in, especially if that art has wheels and a motor.

 

 

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Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
2 years ago

Should mention that Claes Oldenburg died on July 18, the day before yesterday.
As I know the cause of death has not been listed as seeing himself in a car blog.

There is some pretty big obvious overlap between the art world and the car world.

I would posit that all cars are art, however just like those beige color field paintings in waiting rooms and hotel hallways some of them are bad art. Not that there is anything wrong with that, bad art is art too and has its reasons.

You know a car art / art car series would be a fine thing for this site.

Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
2 years ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

As far as I know

“This is not an edit button”

Nlpnt
Nlpnt
2 years ago

Well said!

But, there’s a joke somewhere in here about Art History degrees and Yugo ownership…

Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
2 years ago

Architectural Digest all about money and celebrities. Architectural Record is the real deal.

I don’t consider myself a snob and love 3/4 midget racing almost as by much as F1 (but love vintage racing the most) but Architectural Digest is just too pretentious , sort of like comparing Robb Report to Rodder’s Journal.

BTW, Rodder’s Journal is *serious* about cars as art. That magazine is so beautiful it could be about push mowers and still be the best thing ever.

Dan Blather
Dan Blather
2 years ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

Professional in an allied built environment here, and came to say this. Architectural Digest is basically furniture porn for the dress-entirely-in-black cohort of interior decorator wannabes. Imagine a “car” magazine printed on glossy paper that’s nothing but photos of Recaro seats, and you’ll get the idea. Granted, the folks behind The Autopian might actually like a magazine about car seats, but you’ll probably be disappointed that it’ll never feature the bench seat of a municipal fleet model ’92 F-150, just like Architectural Digest will never show a This End Up sofa in the basement rec room of a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 2,150 square foot Ryan center hall Colonial in Lancaster, New York.

By the way, architects have moved on to Volvo and Audi. Urban planners — the 98% that aren’t Generation Y ban-all-cars types — favor EVs from any brand, and anything from Subaru. Landscape architects like beater trucks, old Volvos, and late model Pruises.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
2 years ago

I have a bachelor’s degree in music. I went to college with, and took classes from, the music equivalent of “Wes’s friends.” Some would sneer at the suggestion that Charlie Parker or Eddie Van Halen were as revolutionary, influential, and sublimely gifted as Stravinsky or Beethoven. The real problem is, I get Stravinsky and Beethoven. They didn’t get Bird and Eddie. “The conservatory” is full of great players, but astonishingly light on musicians. Artists. Go to YouTube and find a video of Stewart Copeland of The Police, by now an accomplished film composer, called “There Are Two Types Of Musicians,” where he brilliantly explains the difference. The whizz kid who can sightread any piece of music you put in front of him? He’s brilliant, but yet, “that kid will never rock.”

Wes, you’re right, and they are not only wrong, but they are insufferable pricks. Tell them that until they make as much money as Grandma Moses, they can stuff it.

Dave Edgar
Dave Edgar
2 years ago

Money? MONEY?! Why, you… you… PHILISTINE!!! Artists are supposed to starve, dammit. How else will we know how committed they are to their art? /s, if it ain’t clear. I agree with you 100% on all counts. In some circles, playing the blues exists on approximately the same plane as needlepoint. Having spent most of my life playing mostly that kind of music, I say, “Thbbbbtttt.” And my classical music friends have almost uniformly told me they enjoy my playing, so there. And my vocal coach is both a jazz and opera singer, so there’s that, as well.

Cerberus
Cerberus
2 years ago

It’s a bogus argument from pretentious, ignorant people who are probably failed or wannabe artists. Most of what is considered classic art—the kind of stuff considered to be “real art” even by the dorks who unoriginally proclaim that their kid could do better in reference to some modern art—was made by commission. It could be argued that it wasn’t expression as much as income earning endeavor, which isn’t a great distance from the industrial arts. Which brings me further, in that many of what are widely considered respected art periods or styles today were at their birth considered not to be “real art” until appreciated by later generations. We may all have our particular preferences, but to dismiss an entire industry or movement out of turn or not be able to appreciate the artistry in something even if it weren’t to the taste of the experiencer says more about their ignorance, narrow vision, and perhaps lack of their own opinion than it is a statement of the works in question’s qualifications as valid works of art.

Chris Hoffpauir
Chris Hoffpauir
2 years ago
Reply to  Cerberus

Nailed it.

My mother still talks about how she doesn’t get what the big deal was with Picasso because she can’t even tell what most of the stuff he painted is supposed to be. In her mind, he was a man who couldn’t paint.

Of course, his natural talent was recognized when he was still a child and his painterly skills were actually excellent. He was classically trained in Spain and could paint you a spot-on copy of a Velázquez on demand. But his real genius was reinterpreting styles, putting his own spin on them, and then creating his own.

Knowonelse
Knowonelse
2 years ago

As for the choice of vehicle to put on the pedastal, magnifique!
One of the best looking somewhat affordable cars of all time.

Factoryhack
Factoryhack
2 years ago

I’ve had this same discussion about where art and cars intersect. I would argue that Street Rods are perhaps the highest form of folk art on the planet.

I’m thinking mostly about the folks who have a vision for what they want to build and then made it happen in their own garage with sweat, creativity, and craftsmanship, usually over the course of several years.

When crazy good builds show up at car shows, usually there is a story behind them that’s damn interesting and poignant if you care to ask a question or two.

Erik Hancock
Erik Hancock
2 years ago
Reply to  Factoryhack

I think that even having the term “Folk Art” is demeaning to the people who make heart-stoppingly beautiful works, but do it in a medium that isn’t one of the “sanctioned” forms of “High Art.”

05LGT
05LGT
2 years ago

When forced to share time and general location with the type of bufunery that set Torch off today, I generally drive the conversational bus off the fucking cliff:
“So you’re saying your art is bigger than mine? Ooohhh, let’s measure dicks next!”
I refuse to pretend either is less churlish or should be more socially acceptable.

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
2 years ago

That picture of Martin Overington filling his old open supercharged Bentley because he’s towing his Bentley Continental GT3 to Silverstone IS art. That’s a litmus test for me: if someone can’t see that beauty, they’re a philistine. Or a Bentley Speed6. A Bugatti Type 34 race car-preferably with mud & rubber bits still adhering.

Beauty

Nic Periton
Nic Periton
2 years ago

The HotWheels Architectural Project was my absolute favorite as a small boy.

Ron888
Ron888
2 years ago

Sorry my choice of words is wrong (again!…)
Instead of annoyed you’re dignifying artists with this article read ‘surprised you’re dignifying’ (etc)

BigThingsComin
BigThingsComin
2 years ago

I have a mental model that splits nice objects into Art and Craft. For me to call something art it is almost required that fine motor control of a human is required in its creation. So the freehand sketch the car designer originally makes is art. Replication of that in clay is art. Replication of that in metal by stamping presses is craft. So no assemblages of crafts by other crafting techniques can ever be art. Sorry.
Hand-shaped vehicles bodies? Mostly art, sometimes craft.
Welding? Sometimes art, mostly craft.
Machining? Sometimes art, mostly craft.
Sewing? Sometimes art, mostly craft.
I think you see where I’m going. A nice car is not art unless created partially by artistic methods. A shark in a tank is most likely not art either.

Frankencamry
Frankencamry
2 years ago
Reply to  BigThingsComin

So, if a machine is programmed to exactly replicate famous paintings, to the point they are indistinguishable from the original, you would stand by this internal gatekeeping that one of the identical items you’ve been presented with is art and the other is a craft?

By your definition, there has never been a photograph that qualifies as art.

Erik Hancock
Erik Hancock
2 years ago
Reply to  Frankencamry

Sadly, there is a school of thought in the art world that ranks photography as a “lesser” art form, so you’re not far off.

BigThingsComin
BigThingsComin
2 years ago
Reply to  Frankencamry

Yep. Mechanical reproduction is never art. Only the original. Doesn’t prevent the expansion of the enjoyment of the original by mechanical reproduction. Look at the market for reproductions in all art forms. I left some weasel words in there to cover things like Photography. Deft handling of the equipment and a refined sense of what you want to capture in a scene are what separate art from snapshot. So there is room for art in photography apart from my original description. Also post-shot manipulation can be art as well by my above criteria.

Ricardo Mercio
Ricardo Mercio
2 years ago
Reply to  BigThingsComin

It’s far more accurate to say that craft is what you make with your hands. A print of a great painting is art, any faithful reproduction of the idea that came from a human mind attached to a human heart is art. Art isn’t the object itself, or the method of its creation (aka the craft), but the conveyance of the author’s emotion or meaning into the mind of the observer. A DVD of Citizen Kane is art, a paperback copy of Brave New World is art, an MP3 file of Bach is art, and a brand new Hyundai Elantra N, fresh off the assembly line where machines stamped and welded and glued it together, is art. The machines involved in the building and distribution of all of these things could neither conceive nor put in motion the production of art without a human who thinks and feels and commands the machines to spread the word. A pen is a machine, a chisel is a machine, and so is a stamping press.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
2 years ago

There’s a fair amount of the West’s eternal Plato vs Aristotle dynamic at play here. Or to put it a more enjoyable way, it’s Sheldon and Wolowitz sniping at each other over who’s truly contributing to science.

There’s always a tension between the more conceptual and the more pragmatic, and depending on where you come from, it can sometimes be hard to see the merit in the other side’s pov. But taken together, it’s our heritage and one of the truly great things about the West.

To steelman the other side here a little, there are plenty of so-designated high artists and their fans who appreciate the beauty of manufactured objects, as things in themselves. Even the stuff we here all love. So we shouldn’t necessarily suspect the worst just b/c someone likes brutalism or whatever.

Salvatore Scarpitta comes immediately to mind – he has pieces that are just restored midget race cars, as he perceived their beauty in how extreme outlandishness (the conceptual) was put in service of winning races (the pragmatic).

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
2 years ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

There’s plenty of great art, culture and architecture in the east as well my friend.

Mantis Toboggan, MD
Mantis Toboggan, MD
2 years ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Pretty sure they’re saying that Western philosophical ideas are the underpinning of the division between high and low art common to popular art criticism. And that they’d agree with you about the value of Eastern art, culture and architecture but since that division isn’t so prominent in those cultures as it is in those of European origin they didn’t feel the need to mention them.

Did you really read that whole comment and think it was some Western Civ chauvinist screed?

Mantis Toboggan, MD
Mantis Toboggan, MD
2 years ago

If that last part seemed confrontational it was unintended and I apologize. I do understand the need to be on guard against that sort of thing, especially nowadays, but I really don’t think that the OP was implying any sort of superiority just that the argument itself is to a large extent unique to modern Western societies.

Ron888
Ron888
2 years ago

The ‘highest’ echelon of artists are so unbelievably stupid that i’m actually a little annoyed you’re dignifying them with this article

Chartreuse Bison
Chartreuse Bison
2 years ago

I understand why people think cars are just an appliance. But I don’t understand why people think how a car looks doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t buy an ugly refrigerator, you buy one that looks nice in the kitchen. Way more people are going to see your car.

NAMiata
NAMiata
2 years ago

On the other hand, don’t overlook the herd mentality. Every millennial who now buys a house has to have a gunmetal gray stainless fridge. After all, regular stainless is so yesterday!

David Fernandez
David Fernandez
2 years ago
Reply to  NAMiata

Because it looks better that regular stainless

David Fernandez
David Fernandez
2 years ago

Sigh *than, I guess I should also add a IMO in there.

Frodo
Frodo
2 years ago
Reply to  NAMiata

In my defense My fridge only looks like that because it was there when I bought my house.

MATTinMKE
MATTinMKE
2 years ago

This is great Autopian. What else can we get Torch on a rant about?

Irv Warden
Irv Warden
2 years ago
Reply to  MATTinMKE

“What else can we get Torch on a rant about?”

How about the unfairness and insanity of there being no Nobel Prize for taillights?

Ea Gregory
Ea Gregory
2 years ago

Perfect summation and nice comment CoolDave, I would say most vehicles on the road were very clearly designed by “focus groups and market research”. There’s been such an emphasis on ringing every last ounce of originality out of vehicle design we get a market full of interchangeable countless SUV’s, sedans, etc. Now, I don’t like it, but it was refreshing to see the fart noises piped into a Tesla. Can you even imagine Hyundai doing that??

OrigamiSensei
OrigamiSensei
2 years ago

Hear, hear, Jason!
Yes, automobiles/motorcycles/other types of transportation and aspects of them can absolutely be art. Just because something is usable for a practical purpose doesn’t preclude it from having artistic and aesthetic value. Moreover, something can nominally be prescribed for a mundane purpose but either be designed in such a way or be so valuable that it longer is practical for serving that purpose. For instance, when’s the last time you saw a Ming vase actually holding flowers? Likewise, a concept car may be pure art and utterly useless at being a car.

Mark Tucker
Mark Tucker
2 years ago

Well said! The notion that Andy Warhol’s work is art but Raymond Loewy’s isn’t is hogwash. Balderdash. Malarkey, I say.

And I’d also point out that snobbery within the automotive community is equally tiresome. Derisive or dismissive comments about someone’s car because it’s something you don’t think is “worthy” isn’t helping anybody. There’s a guy on Opposite Lock with a brochure-perfect 1990 Pontiac Sunbird that he takes to shows; for every “Nice car” or “Wow, I haven’t seen one of those in ages,” he gets a “Why’d you waste so much effort on THAT?” or “My mom had one of those, what a piece of shit.”

As you might guess, I’m in favor of a more egalitarian approach. It’s why I actually enjoy scraping the bottom of the automotive barrel every morning. Keeps us all honest.

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Tucker

To be honest I find cars like that far more interesting than the latest exotic stuff or this weeks new 911 variant.

NAMiata
NAMiata
2 years ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Many not so exclusive cars can have amazing artistic value. For example, the gas cap door on my ’79 Alfa Spider was an absolute object of beauty.

While praising “lesser” vehicles, on the other hand, it’s also hard to ignore high end French cars from the 30’s and not admire them as shear sculpture.

Chris Hoffpauir
Chris Hoffpauir
2 years ago
Reply to  NAMiata

You can include the Cord 810/812 in that class. Those cars were rolling art pieces.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
2 years ago
Reply to  NAMiata

And that’s without even mentioning logos and badges. The chrome script “Thunderbird” emblem on the back of my dad’s 1977 was just terrific. There are divided opinions about such a malaise machine, especially from an art/design perspective (I loved it, y’all can go to hell), but that logo badge was sexy as hell.

And think of an old-school Jaguar hood ornament. It’s a representation in flowing chrome of what the rest of the car coming at you is about. Or a 1957 Chevy Bel Air, which is pointing ROCKETS at you, from the dawn of the space age. Many of the classic hood ornaments back in the day were an artistic metaphor for the car.

Myk El
Myk El
2 years ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

I remember being at the annual exotic car show near me, surrounded by the latest in Italian and German performance and everyone is huddled around this guy showing all the cool features on a Citroen DS19.

SLIDTossedPissedinto BleuCHSaladwCroutons
SLIDTossedPissedinto BleuCHSaladwCroutons
2 years ago
Reply to  Myk El

Lemme guess… it was Doug DeMuro

RustBucket67
RustBucket67
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark Tucker

I struggle with this myself and am actively trying to be better at it. This is a reason that car communities feel stand-offish and hard to get into.

I want to foster an environment where anyone who loves cars and wants to be around them feels welcome. I shouldn’t knit-pick aesthetics too much since trends change and my own interests will likely look weird in the future.

TOSSABL
TOSSABL
2 years ago
Reply to  RustBucket67

Paragraph 1a of my personal philosophy of ‘People is jest people’ is something like,
I don’t care if you Cruise Classics, drag race, mud bog/rock crawl, carve corners, or just race a lawnmower: we’re all just turning chemicals ( and now electrons ) into noise & fun. All gearheads welcome!

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
2 years ago

I studied for my masters in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art. You know who some it’s slightly more famous than me alumni are?

David Hockney
Tracey Emin
Henry Moore
Barbara Hepworth
Peter Blake
Alan Rickman
Ridley Scott
Ian Dury
Asif Kapadia
Thomas Hetherwick
Sandra Rhodes.

Case. Fucking. Closed.

Dave Garland
Dave Garland
2 years ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

while “art” is a word open to defintion by the user, in my mind it requires some sort of intentional communication. Maybe some don’t get it, but some do. What does any car communicate beside “I go”? “Craft” is a better word, meaning something functional well done in a pleasing way. A chair is not art, though it may be pleasing. Likewise a car. (Of course, the Kia Soul, while sort of ugly, is art. No?)

Shoop
Shoop
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Garland

How do you look at a NA Miata or a Dodge Charger Hellcat and not see the emotions and ideas trying to be conveyed?

Erik Hancock
Erik Hancock
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Garland

I would argue that an automobile is a much more effective medium for intentional communication than “capital-A-Art.” Cars are designed to be all about communicating things like: “I have a lot of money and I’m not afraid to spend it” or “I spend all my weekends outdoors” or “I want people to think I care about the environment” or “I have a small penis but winning this street race will fix it.”

Chris Hoffpauir
Chris Hoffpauir
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Garland

Then why are people paying a premium for junk Chandigarh Chairs out of India?

Ricardo Mercio
Ricardo Mercio
2 years ago
Reply to  Dave Garland

Cars communicate countless things. The design of a sports car may communicate speed, sexuality, violence, grace, even humility or cuteness, a Ferrari is sexy, a Challenger is threatening, a Miata is friendly. The sounds will be designed to provide a note of joy, anger, ecstasy, Ford’s coyote has a note of exasperation, a threat of violence when idling, and howls in fury when driven purposefully, whereas a BMW N55 purrs along most of the time and sings in exultation when pushed into boost. The dynamics also communicate a feeling, acceleration is an obvious one, but the steering feedback is different in every car, and so is behavior. A dainty lotus will react sharply to everything you do, leading you in a nimble dance on a knife’s edge bringing out any talent you have, it will inspire apprehension, fear, excitement and ultimately pride, whereas a 911 Turbo will overwhelm you with unbelievable capability, allowing you to achieve things you’d never be capable of without such an advanced all-wheel-drive machine, inspiring confidence and power in the driver, an automotive Excalibur.

The design of a family car will communicate security, solidity, warmth, the impression of a monolith with more mass than it truly carries, more consequence than the machine alone can provide, the engine note will be tuned to provide peace, a sense of a thrumming servile beast that will not betray. The driving dynamics will be likewise engineered to give the driver a sense of stability and control.

More than that, cars are an incredibly class-conscious art medium. A tuner or muscle car is designed to reflect the working and middle class, a capable and powerful thing that forgoes luxuries in favor of performance in order to surpass the upper-class sports cars, an ode to the struggle of the working person and their ability to still find joy in their utilitarian life. The transformation of a pushrod truck engine into a Corvette is a testament to making the best with what you’ve got, using available brutish tools to achieve the same joy as the upper class’s exotics.

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
2 years ago
Reply to  Ricardo Mercio

Extremely well put. Every car conveys a message about it’s owner and it’s purpose, whether they or the viewer is conscious of it or not.
Not only that, cars are a reflection of the times, the circumstances and the people that created them.
In the same way that some people don’t understand, or want to understand art, that doesn’t mean art doesn’t exist. Some people see cars as an appliance or something to be used, that doesn’t mean that they’re choice of vehicle isn’t an extension of them – it just means they’re not aware or don’t care what it says about them.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
2 years ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

My wife doesn’t “get” a 1973 Pontiac Trans Am 455 Super Duty any more than I “get” Jackson Pollock. But you know what? We appreciate each other’s enthusiasms, even when we don’t share them. It makes me happy to see her see something that makes her happy. That means that I can be glad that Jackson Pollock lived and worked, because of the enjoyment his work brings to my wife. I’m grateful for that.

Joe The Drummer
Joe The Drummer
2 years ago
Reply to  Ricardo Mercio

Torch, Tracy, hire this man. This is one of the best things I’ve ever read on this site.

Irv Warden
Irv Warden
2 years ago

It is not just cars,

Back in 1998, The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition at the Guggenheim in NYC was a big hit. A few years later, a History Channel show about motorcycles included a talking head who said that the best thing about the success of the exhibition was that it aggravated art snobs. I agree.

I am among the least artistic humans to have ever walked the earth, but even I know that a person who does not see artistic merit in an early XKE roadster or a Ferrari 250 GTO or (insert any car you fancy here) has a hole in his/her soul.

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
2 years ago
Reply to  Irv Warden

Look at an original Ducati 916 and tell me with a straight face it’s not art..

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
2 years ago
Reply to  Irv Warden

Forgot to add, it’s like the Omega Moon Swatch annoying all the watch snobs, which I thought was HILARIOUS and I am so here for it.

MATTinMKE
MATTinMKE
2 years ago
Reply to  Irv Warden

I was lucky enough to go to the Art of the Motorcycle in the Guggenheim. It was a fantastic show. So was Speed, Style, and Beauty: Cars from the Ralph Lauren Collection at the Boston MFA. All the rare, uber-expensive cars I dreamed about as a teenager in one gallery.

Stephen Bierce
Stephen Bierce
2 years ago

Reminded of the times the boys on TOP GEAR (I know) got into cars as “theater”. Do you show up at the uptown club (or the awards show) in a hired limo, or in a restored 1959 Borgward Coupe that you drive there yourself? What says more about you as a person of culture? Many people are out-and-among-them more in their cars than in any other “social” setting. They’re wearing a 1,000 pound fashion outfit whether they realize it or not.

Data
Data
2 years ago

I prefer OG Ghia to the Type 34.
I spent sooo many years trying to track down a copy of One Night in Bangkok in the 90’s.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
Siam’s gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha
And thank God I’m only watching the game controlling it
I don’t see you guys rating
The kind of mate I’m contemplating
I’d let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you

Root
Root
2 years ago

Amen! Preach, brother!

Cool Dave
Cool Dave
2 years ago

I find, personally, more artistic merit in older stuff and in peoples vehicles that they build or modify themselves. Where there is an expression of their persona or style. A lot of modern cars (looking at your Toyota) are kind of appliances because they’re built from focus groups and market research.

Cool Dave
Cool Dave
2 years ago
Reply to  Cool Dave

Ugh, need an edit button. It’s supposed to say ‘you Toyota’, not ‘your Toyota’ because now I look like I’m giving Torchinsky a hard time about a vehicle he doesn’t even own.

Jakob K's Garage
Jakob K's Garage
2 years ago
Reply to  Cool Dave

Isn’t that moldy boxy white Scion thing, he drove to DT’s place, a Toyota? 😉

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