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Newsstand Rate $1.75 INDEXES ONPAGES 36 & 37
May 29, 2015
BY JAMES D. BALESTRIERIINDIANAPOLIS, IND. Once upon a time,
the
future was a bright, highly polished thing, sleekwith speed,
speed that flew at the speed of thought.We would zip around in
flying cars from homes thatcleaned themselves to work that did
itself to play infields where our senses and dreams mixed and
min-gled until the boundaries between them fell away.The smallest
thing, the atom, would get us there.Unless it killed us first.
Small things rule now, some even smaller thanatoms: electrons;
viruses both kinds; amino acids.We are still here, but the future
has taken on theweaponized patina of the apocalypse. Now,
thefuture, as we envisioned it once upon a time, isrevivified in
Dream Cars: Innovative Design,Visionary Ideas, on view at the
IndianapolisMuseum of Art through August 23.
The show is part of our past, a thing for which weare nostalgic.
The exhibition is brought to life bysome pretty nifty
state-of-the-art micro/nanotech,courtesy of the Net tech that the
dream cardesigners of the 1940s and 1950s could just aboutimagine.
In the fashion of Disneys Test Track atEpcot, visitors can design
their own cars, virtually,and test them, replicating in minutes
what once
took months when the dream teams at DetroitsGeneral Motors,
Torinos Pininfarina and otherssculpted models out of clay and
subjected them towind tunnel tests with jets of ink marking
themovement of air over the bodies of cars. To add evenmore to the
exhibition, a tablet app allows visitors toexplore features inside
the cars that would other-wise be inaccessible. So, how we
experience theexhibition is part of what the exhibition is
about.Todays microtechnology facilitates our appreciationof
yesterdays whiz-bang macro vision of today.
Nevertheless, it is the cars that captivate theirlong lines and
low silhouettes, the graceful, swoop-ing fenders on some, and the
functional, spare,Space Age simplicity that characterizes
others.
Those of us who grew up on dream cars drewdream cars. Drawing
dream cars in the margins oftextbooks and the pages of our
wide-ruled spiralnotebooks sometimes roused the wrath of our
teach-ers. But the long nose and high spoiler on thePlymouth
Superbird? Excaliburs 1970s revival oflow-slung, growling, 1930s
roadster style? The BlueFlame going for the land speed record on
theBonneville Salt Flats? The Snake and theMongoose? (I will leave
you the pleasure of lookingup those two.) The gull-wing DeLorean in
the Back
to the Future movies? They wanted you to drawthem, to weld your
own imagination onto them andsend your nuclear-powered turbine
hybrids intoouter space.
What is amazing about the Dream Cars inIndianapolis, apart from
their beauty and style, isthe sheer number of what were then
futuristic gadg-ets that are now standard features on
automobiles.As examples, the seats in the 1936 Stout Scarab,
aproto-minivan, could be reconfigured and even posi-tioned around a
table, the 1951 GM Le Sabre XP-8boasted heated seats and could run
on either gas orethanol, and the 1956 Buick Centurion XP-301
didaway with rearview mirror in favor of a closed-cir-cuit TV
camera mounted above the tail cone thatdisplayed traffic behind you
on a 4-by-6-inch moni-tor on the dashboard. Moisture sensors in
seatsclosed the tops on dream car convertibles in theevent of rain.
For security, built-in intercomsallowed those inside to communicate
with anyoneoutside without opening a door or window. The 1942LOeuf
lectrique, built as a response to the gasshortages in Paris during
the German Occupation,looks like todays Smart Car, with its
wraparound
Chrysler Thunderbolt, 1941, designed by Ralph Roberts and Alex
Tremulis. Courtesy of Roger Willbanks, Denver, Colo. Michael Furman
photo
DreamCarsInnovative Design, Visionary Ideas
( continued on page 30 )
Above: Bugatti Type 57 Comptition Coup Aerolithe recreation,
1935, designed by Jean Bugatti and Joseph Walter;made by the Guild
of Automotive Restorers. Courtesy of Christopher Ohrstrom. Joe
Wiecha photo
Published by The Bee Publishing Company, Newtown,
Connecticut
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30 Antiques and The Arts Weekly May 29, 2015
General Motors Firebird I XP-21, 1953, designed by Harley J.
Earl, RobertF. Bob McLean and GM Styling Section staff. Courtesy
General MotorsHeritage Center. Michael Furman photo
Plexiglas windshield. The catalog doesnot say, but where did he
get that Plexi,and how, especially during the war, did heshape it
to fit the car?
Even more amazing are the experimen-tal features on some of
these cars that arestill down the road, in the future, for us.
The huge nose cones on the 1959 CadillacCyclone XP-74 (called
Dagmars, after thescreen name of a well-endowed 1950s star-let)
contained proximity sensors to letdrivers prevent accidents (this
technologyis only now entering the market) and toallow for
driverless driving on smartroads of the future theirs and ours.
Designers and design studios of theDream Car era were stars.
NormanTimbs, Syd Mead, Ettore Bugatti, GordonBuehrig: these are
just a few of artistsand tinkerers who built cars on theirown, in
their spare time, just to see if theycould. They built cars that
looked likerockets, and teardrops, and fish, mimick-ing and
challenging nature. From the1930s through the 1950s, GM
largelyunder the direction of Harley Earl, who,while not a designer
himself, seemed tohave the ability to inspire designers threw
lavish Motoramas at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, complete
withdancers in outfits designed to match thecars and home design
for the forward-thinking consumer: 1956, for example,featured the
popular Kitchen of
Tomorrow exhibit by Frigidaire, thenowned by GM.
There were rivalries among designersas well. In the early 1970s
Ferrari andLancia contended to see who could buildthe sports car
with the lowest practicalsilhouette. How low can you go?Carrozzeria
Bertones design for Lancia,the Stratos HF Zero, stood 33 inches
highat its highest, 313/16 inches lower thanFerraris 512S Modulo.
Thin-wedge carslike these continue to dominate our ideaof a high
performance sports car and theyare emulated around the world.
The most recent entry in the exhibition,the 2001 BMW Gina,
bridges past andpresent notions of design. Looking like anupdated
1930s roadster, the car is con-structed of a skin of Spandex fitted
over aflexible carbon frame that can be adjust-ed by the driver to
conform to changingroad conditions: The deployable rearspoiler [for
example] could grow taller toincrease down force, enhancing tire
gripat high speeds. And in a very sexy twist,the hood unzips to
reveal and access theengine.
An exhibition like this begs you to nameyour favorites and to
argue for yours infavor of everyone elses (the book alonecaused a
stir in my house). I have a softspot for the 1936 Bugatti
Aerolithe, withits steampunk rivets, sweptback fendersand teardrop
windows. The Chinatownlines of the 1941 Chrysler Thunderboltand the
exaggerated film noir curves of
Tasco, 1948, designed by Gordon M.Buehrig. Courtesy of the
Auburn CordDuesenberg Automobile Museum,Auburn, Ind. Peter Harholdt
photo
Cadillac Cyclone XP-74, 1959, designed byHarley J. Earl and Carl
Renner. Courtesy ofGeneral Motors Heritage Center, Warren,Mich.
Peter Harholdt photo
Voisin C-25 Arodyne, 1934, designed by Gabriel Voisin. Courtesy
of Merleand Peter Mullin, Brentwood, Calif. Michael Furman
photo
Norman Timbs Special, 1947, designed by Norman Timbs. Courtesy
ofGary and Diane Cerveny. Peter Harholdt photo
General Motors Le Sabre XP-8, 1951, designed by Harley J. Earl
and GM Styling Section staff. Courtesy of General Motors Heritage
Center, Warren, Mich.Michael Furman photo
Stout Scarab, 1936, designed by William B. Stout. Courtesy
ofLarry Smith. Michael Furman photo
BMW Gina Light Visionary Model, 2001, designed by Christopher
Bangle.BMW AG
DreamCarsInnovative Design, Visionary Ideas
( continued from page 1C )
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May 29, 2015 Antiques and The Arts Weekly 31
Chrysler (Ghia) Streamline X Gilda, 1955, designed by Giovanni
Savonuzzi and Virgil Exner. Courtesy of Scott Grundfor and Kathleen
Redmond.Michael Furman photo
Dreaming Of Futures Past
the 1948 Norman Timbs Special make mewant to don my fedora and
take a case.And the 1953 Firebird I XP-21, a car Imust have seen
but do not recall, calls tomind all the rocket cars I drew as a
kid.But, when all is said and done, I wouldtake the 1955 Chrysler
(Ghia) StreamlineX, nicknamed Gilda after the 1946 filmnoir that
starred Rita Hayworth in thetitle role. Designed by Carrozzeria
Ghiain Italy, the Gildas bullet shape and gasturbine engine
(originally intended butnever installed, until recently), its
lowprofile and prominent fins, make it theideal car for the
would-be private eye-slash-superhero.
Dream cars like these are highly col-lectible. They are also
exceedingly rare.Many were scavenged and recycled intoother
projects. Once in awhile, however,someone finds one of these
wonders, rust-ing away in a field or languishing in someforgotten
garage or shed. Treasures likethese, even in the most dilapidated
condi-tion, bring small fortunes and greatacclaim.
Today, the dream awakens. A renewedinterest in automobile design
is emerging.The focus, for the present, building on theBMW in the
exhibition, is on alternativefuels, economy and materials (I am
think-ing of Tesla and the three-wheeled Elio),but the driverless
car and the smart roadare on the horizon, bringing us full
circleback to the Cadillac Cyclone. The move to
cheap fossil fuels fueled the first revolu-tion in automobiles.
The move away fromfossil fuels may well ignite a new revolu-tion in
personal transportation. With therapid strides that have been and
continueto be made in computer design software,can a new aesthetic
be far behind?Microtech drives macro vision.
I have caught my son drawing cars attimes lately, when he should
be doing hishomework. Wrath? No chance. I sit downbeside him and
draw my own gyroscopic,plasma-powered, roadster/camper dreamride,
and show him a few old tricks, trickshe is free to ignore. Once
upon a time, itseemed like it might be time for a road tripto
Indianapolis. But not in the minivan.
Dream Cars: Innovative Design,Visionary Ideas was organized by
theIndianapolis Museum of Art in conjunc-tion with the High Museum
of Art inAtlanta, and curated by SarahSchleuning, curator of
decorative arts anddesign at the High Museum of Art, in
con-sultation with award-winning automotivewriter and IMA guest
curator Ken Gross.The exhibition premiered at the HighMuseum of Art
in May 2014.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art is at4000 Michigan Road. For
information,317-923-1331 or www.imamuseum.org.
Jim Balestrieri is the director of J.N.Bartfield Galleries in
New York City. He isalso a playwright and author and
writesfrequently about the arts.
Edsel Ford Model 40 Special Speedster, 1934, designed by Edsel
Fordand Eugene T. Bob Gregorie. Courtesy of the Edsel and Eleanor
FordHouse, Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.
Buick Centurion XP-301, 1956, designed by Harley J. Earl and
Charles Chuck Jordan. Courtesy of Sloan Museum, Flint, Mich.
Michael Furman photo
At The Indianapolis Museum Of Art Through August 23
LOeuf lectrique, 1942, designed and fabricated by Paul Arzens.
CourtesyMuse des Arts et Mtiers, Paris. Michel Zumbrunn and Urs
Schmid photo