Automobile as art

Ed98

Hello Hudson Aficionados.
What brought me to the Hudson fold was the Hornet. I grew up in an automobile/racing environment as my father was in the car service industry. At some point I developed a personal interest in exploring the Hudson Hornet from a styling and engineering aspect especially the historical significance. This is continuing and has carried over to helping one of the regional HET clubs with their advertising and personal photo/art work. While I do not own any classic automobiles, I am always looking to express and contribute so that others can appreciate and enjoy these vintage makes.

iceblade10

Hello Ed, 

The art snob intelligensia will tell you that art, by definition, cannot have any purpose other than being art.  Therefore, cars are unable to be art.  Personally, I find that to be a bunch of hooey!  

Do you have examples of your art you'd like to share?

Park_W

iceblade10 said:

Hello Ed, 

The art snob intelligensia will tell you that art, by definition, cannot have any purpose other than being art.  Therefore, cars are unable to be art.  Personally, I find that to be a bunch of hooey!  

Do you have examples of your art you'd like to share?

Blackhawk Collection, near San Francisco.  Most of the cars are displayed as art objects.

Ed98

graphic/ advertising art... (photo illustration) Here is a Hornet that I have carefully elongated the perspective (a technique used by automotive advertising illustrators). I did this to create motion, depth  and speed and emphasize the car coming forward from the background. The actual file is 40 x 28 inches but would also conform to a 7x5 greeting/note card promoting Hudson and in particular the popular Hornet.

airbrushguy

"The art snob intelligentsia will tell you that art, by definition, cannot have any purpose other than being art."

Being an artist, I have avoided comment on this but I fear the definition and interpretation of art is being muddled. I will just present the Statue of Liberty or a Lalique hood ornament into this discussion....explain away.

iceblade10

Ed, if you meant to attach a file, it didn't seem to work.

Airbrushguy, I am not sure what you want me to explain?  I stated SOME artists will say cars cannot be art, because art is supposed to have no other purpose other than being art.  Since cars are are used for transportation, they cannot be art, no matter how aesthetically pleasing they may be, according to these people.  I also stated that I didn't particularly agree with that sentiment.  

I do think that just because something is beautiful, it doesn't necessarily make it art, however.  A car can be stylish and beautiful, as that will certainly help this consumer good to sell... but is it art?

I'm not sure what you want me to say about the statue of liberty or a hood ornament.  Are they art?  Do they have a purpose other than communicating an idea or emotion?  If a piece of art is attached to the hood of a car, does that in turn make the whole car a work of art?

Maybe art can be injected into anything, regardless of function?

airbrushguy

Sorry, I did not see where you said SOME...in fact I still don't.
The so called "art snob intelligentsia" usually refers to the art critics, not the artists. My examples only serve to show that a piece of art can serve another purpose other than being a piece of art i.e. a harbor beacon or a cap to seal a radiator.
With all the styling that goes into the development of an automobile, they are really a beautifully designed utilitarian object.
With that in mind, are the mechanized creations of Alexander Calder then, not art?
I guess I am questioning your first statement but agreeing with your last.
I am also not sure that Ed98 is saying the cars themselves are art but that he is exploring the artwork that went into their design.

iceblade10

Airbrush, I meant no offense to you or most artists.  I apologize if that's what happened. When I said the "intelligensia," I was refering to the select few who consider themselves some kind of art elitists.  So while I did not use the word "some," it was implied (or so I intended).

If you've ever seen the documentaryThe Art of the Steal (set in my home town of Philly), you will see the kind of people I'm talking about.  These old money people think that art is something that us peasants can't possibly appreciate or even comprehend.  These same people would say that a car *gasp!* cannot possibly be art!  That's all I was trying to say.

Also, I tend to be a little snarky, which may not come across well in an online forum sometimes...  Snark is the lingua franca of my generation... ;-)

airbrushguy

No offense taken.