What is Art?

Several years ago a friend of mine in San Francisco was complaining about “another classic car show” taking up space. I was instantly jealous. Not only was a car show set up in his neighborhood, but to see one in California, the capital of car culture, and in a city as wealthy as San Francisco? I can only imagine what amazing feats of artistry and engineering he was taking for granted. 

But his gripe also stuck with me, and it periodically rears its ugly head, particularly when one of my more artistically minded friends takes a swat at car culture. 

Stout Scarab

Automotive design is one of the most ignored, if not one of the most maligned art forms. When Maurizio Cattelan taped a banana to a wall, critics lined up to gawk at his outsider work of art. But when tons of gracefully bent steel and chrome are displayed on the streets of a major American city - for free - those same critics brush it aside as a problematic product celebrating traffic jams and climate change. The men and women who restore priceless pieces at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are revered as artisans. Mechanics are "grease monkeys."  

1948 Timbs Buick Streamliner

It’s true, art serves solely to inspire. And while the Stout Scarab and the Phantom Corsair are certainly inspirational, cars are first and foremost tools that take us from one point to another. It’s hard to consider automotive design an art form when your primary reference point is a parking lot full of indistinguishable crossovers. But it’s difficult to say how many art academics are aware of the Jonckheere Phantom or the Timbs Streamliner because there’s a willful ignorance in the traditional art world when it comes to artistic genres that blend artistry and purpose.

On the first day of my 10th grade art class, my teacher picked up a Swingline stapler and said, "everything is art". No statement has ever been truer. 

Jonckheere Phantom, or "Round Door Rolls"

It’s hard to ignore the political influences. The art world is significantly Left leaning while the automotive lobby is staunchly on the Right side of the political spectrum. But that’s not a complete assessment of either realm. Popular automotive outlets like Autopian and Jalopnik are considerably woke, and while galleries and museums might benefit from Left leaning initiatives, Republicans are avid art collectors. Still, both are propelled by the stereotypes of their perceived alignments. Trump paraphernalia is in no short supply at neighborhood car shows and the Concours oozes old money conservatism.

 

That’s unfortunate.

Phantom Corsair

Public art museums should be repositories of inspiration to be enjoyed by the masses, and the designs of Giorgetto Giugiaro and John Z. DeLorean should be held to the same esteem as the works of Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. Sadly, in a world of growing polarization that traffics in pigeonholing people into undeserved buckets, art people are “smart” and car people are “stupid.” That’s not fair. To quote Puddy from Seinfeld, “I don’t know too many monkeys that can take apart a fuel injector.”