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MOMA 1951: "Eight Automobiles" Exhibit

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Jive-Bomber, Feb 9, 2010.

  1. Jive-Bomber
    Joined: Aug 21, 2001
    Posts: 3,749

    Jive-Bomber
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  2. Weasel
    Joined: Dec 30, 2007
    Posts: 6,698

    Weasel
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    Some of the picks are right on - Cisi, Talbot, Cord but I would have preferred to see the Jag XK 120 instead of the MG.

    Are you asking for as top eight that were pre 1952?
     
  3. Jive-Bomber
    Joined: Aug 21, 2001
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    Jive-Bomber
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    I'm with you- The MG and the Jeep don't do much for me in terms of style. XK 120, 356A or a 300 SL would have been perfect!

    I wouldn't limit to 1952 or earlier- Say that your opening the exhibit now- 50 years after the MoMA event. Way more cars to choose from now!
     
  4. oldandkrusty
    Joined: Oct 8, 2002
    Posts: 2,141

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    It's awfully hard to pick ONLY eight cars to add to the list, but I know for sure that just about any Delahaye would be on that list, together with nearly any product from the Auburn Cord, Duesenberg collective. Also, any car Harry Miller tweaked his Snidley Whiiplash mustache over.

    I'll have to think about this list a little more to come up with a definitive list. This might take me only a couple years...
     

  5. A list that does not include a Figoni et Falaschi Delahaye or a Murphy Duesenburg is incomplete.
     
  6. fur biscuit
    Joined: Jul 22, 2005
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    fur biscuit
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    The TC is the epitome of its style, very few cars are so well put together aesthetically. And it's style is legendary. It is "pure".

    Many of your questions can be answered with the cars chosen "why didn't they choose the Zephyer"...cause they chose the Talbot and the Cord.

    The Jeep is a brilliant choice.

    The Cisi hails the change in automotive design thought process.

    Can you scan the rest of the packet that explains why each car was chosen?
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2010
  7. Weasel
    Joined: Dec 30, 2007
    Posts: 6,698

    Weasel
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    Post 1952 a pontoon fendered 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa would have to be on my list as would a Jaguar E Type 3.8 Series I. Here is a Smithsonian poster of a 1957 Testa Rossa which was owned and restored by Fred Peters - I was lucky enough to spend some hardcore drool time admiring this piece of art on wheels at Fred's home a couple of years ago.


    [​IMG]
     
  8. BeatnikPirate
    Joined: May 21, 2006
    Posts: 1,416

    BeatnikPirate
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    from Media, Pa.

    Interesting post. Good choices but I agree that the MG and the Jeep could be replaced by better choices, like the Jag XK120, 1929 Auburn Cabin Speedster or '38 Buick Y Job. The Jeep was chosen due to it's "functionalist design". On that basis, I might include a Lotus 7.
    If done today, I'd definitely include Jag XKE series 1, Porsche 356 (maybe the 911), and Ferrari 275GTB, and maybe the '53 Stude. How about you?
     
  9. Yes, ANY list of car designs should include a 1953 Studebaker coupe. Of course, I am biased, having one in the garage. But it was declared a work of art by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was included in an exhibit of the "Greatest Industrial Designs."
    Also, no mention of any Bugatti designed cars?
     
  10. crosleykook
    Joined: Feb 15, 2006
    Posts: 190

    crosleykook
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    from sackamento

    It's easy to criticize these choices 60 years down the road (although I don't see how anyone makes a rational argument against the inclusion of the Jeep)... but the key here is context.

    In 1951, showing automobiles in an art museum was pretty revolutionary. The message here was that industrial design was as important an artform as painting or sculpture. Today we take it for granted that an art museum would show cars, but that was a huge step forward in critical theory for that time.

    MoMA had already done the same thing with architecture in the thirties with their International Style show- so applying the same standards to other industrial designs (like cars) was a logical next step.

    Off the top of my head, if I had to choose my 8 for a museum show today I'd pick the Model T, probably a Duesenberg or Cord, an Airflow, The jeep, a first generation beetle, an early corvette (first major fiberglass car), a strictly for-racing car (probably a thirties Mercedes or fifties Ferrari, but I'd have to think about it) and one of the classic-era kustoms like the Hirohata Merc.
     
  11. fur biscuit
    Joined: Jul 22, 2005
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    fur biscuit
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    well, since i own one of the car on the list, i can say nya-nya to the whole bunch of you.

    Next time we promise to have a '57 Chevy, a '66 Mustang vert and a '32 dueche.

    Seriously. Instead asking why you would replace things on the list, ask WHY they are on the list. Then compare what you would have put on there, can you see the ROOTs and inspirations that lead to the cars that the proletariat so hamb-handilied want to have there instead?
     
  12. fur biscuit
    Joined: Jul 22, 2005
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    Why? they are already represented.
     
  13. theHIGHLANDER
    Joined: Jun 3, 2005
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    theHIGHLANDER
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    I've known of this exhibit for decades and always agreed with most of the choices. Never been a fan of early MGs, I really can get my head around the Jeep. The Continental, no need for any further dicussion there. Ditto for the Cord. But the question being what "...would you add..." is a tough call. I'm a Packard guy. I would have to add a 41 180 Clipper. I know that recently several of our membership were less than appreciative of that car's style, but the members here by and large look at things in 'flat black and red' instead of black and white, or indeed, color. The clipper was a marvel in style, comfort and construction. The influence of "Dutch" Darrin is pretty well evident regardless of whether or not it was his original design that was used. Much like the Cisitalia the clean slab sides and overall surface tension was ground-breaking. The interiors were cozy and inviting, or perhaps even as exclusive as your grandma's forbidden sofa. While never offered in an open design, there were 3 body types. The 7 passenger sedan, 5 pasenger sedan, and the 2dr Club Sedan. Quiet, sturdy, comfort, power, everything a motorist had genuine lust for at a time when fenders and runningboards were still the order of the day. Top it off with a windshield that sports a sinister 49 degree rake...OK, I'm done. Maybe you can see what I see here:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  14. autobilly
    Joined: May 23, 2007
    Posts: 3,120

    autobilly
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    What, no Holden ute?!
    [​IMG]
    :D
     
  15. fur biscuit
    Joined: Jul 22, 2005
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    fur biscuit
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    I would add this:

    [​IMG]

    or this:

    [​IMG]
     
  16. Jive-Bomber
    Joined: Aug 21, 2001
    Posts: 3,749

    Jive-Bomber
    MODERATOR

    I wish I had more pages- Its VERY hard to find any images on-line from that show.
     
  17. mgbtc
    Joined: Dec 22, 2006
    Posts: 112

    mgbtc
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    And what about a 1965 Riveria?
     
  18. VanHorton
    Joined: Apr 7, 2007
    Posts: 585

    VanHorton
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    for the time, i think it is a good list... down the road i really think the porsche 550 belongs on there, designed to be just enough to cover the wheels engine and driver, its amazing....
     
  19. scottybaccus
    Joined: Mar 13, 2006
    Posts: 4,109

    scottybaccus
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    Read the article on the Jeep. If it strikes a chord for you, you belong on the salt. If it doesn't, you must be George Barris...

    :)
     
  20. rixrex
    Joined: Jun 25, 2006
    Posts: 1,433

    rixrex
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    narrowing it down to any number would always be very hard, even in 1951..Especially when you include European cars..wouldn't want the job, too personal and too many critics..what about the Chrysler Airflow?
     
  21. I gotta agree with fur buscuit, especially in 51. All of those cars are very rational design choices. While they wouldn't be all of our choices maybe, they are all beautifully thought out autos. I think the Jeep is pure genius, and think of the folks walking around in there looking at that! But from a design point of view, the Cord was the first car to really use styling to sell engineering, and it put Miller's front wheel drive to practical use (though not all could afford it). The MG was such a bare-bones design that has absolutely no fat in it. While I am not a fan of the Lincoln, it does speak to the people who frequent the museum, and I don't think that anyone can really argue with the Cisitalia or the Talbot-Lago.

    Remember this is 1951, later (like 1990) they did make an E-type a permanent exhibit along with the Bell 47 helicopter and the Cisitalia.

    So it isn't like they didn't think about what they put in there. Plus wouldt take any of those. (OK maybe not the Lincoln, but every other one).
     
  22. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
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    I love this thread. I could wallow in this conversation for days.

    I think all the original choices were, for the time, brilliant. From the perspective of 50+ years later, I would probably let go of the Mercedes (exaggerated proportions, almost cartoony), the Bentley (a favorite of mine, and probably the most elegant example of the British razor-edge school ever, but kind of a design dead end), and the Continental (really just a radical custom by Edsel Ford and Bob Gregorie based on established Ford themes -- nice piece, but one of the all time greats? Not to me).

    I agree with a couple of my colleagues that the '53 Stude belongs here. Together with the Cord, one of the high water marks of American automotive design:
    [​IMG]

    I would put in the Ferrari 250GT Farina coupe. According to some Ferrari experts, this was the first series-produced road-going Ferrari, and while it's not as flamboyant as some others of the make, I think its purity of line and proportion qualify it as the ultimate businessman's express:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    OR, the first series Aston Marton DB4, as sleek and pretty a GT as has ever been produced. The profile view shows its gorgeous line. I'd have to eventually choose between the 250 and this car; the short list wouldn't need both:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    In the vein of the MG and the Jeep, there ought to be an everyman's car on this list. For my money, this earliest VW is the purest, and is among the best of all the cheap transportation cars ever made:
    [​IMG]

    Finally, I'd want to include a race car, preferably a '50s Ferrari. To my taste, there's never been a better looking car than the Testa Rossa 500TRC:
    [​IMG]

    ...but I could be convinced to include a GTO instead:
    [​IMG]

    I respectfully relinquish the soap box.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2012
  23. 29woodie
    Joined: Apr 7, 2009
    Posts: 93

    29woodie
    Member
    from boston, ma

    "I don't have to dwell on the point that cars mean more to these kids than architecture did in Europe's great formal century, say 1750 to 1850. They are freedom, style, sex, power, motion, color-everything is right there." Tom Wolfe, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.

    I'd recommend the book, Cars Freedom Style Sex Power Motion Colour Everything, by Stephen Bayley. In it he looks at what he considers the "80 greatest car design ever, the ones that changed conventional wisdom, lifted the game, raised the bar." 1908 Ford Model T. 1939 BMW Mille Miglia. 1948 Land Rover Series 1. 1953 Studebaker Starlight. 1955 Citroen DS. 1963 Buick Riviera. All shot in a simple, straightforward style in black and white.
    Some really beautiful cars here.
     
  24. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
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    Has the catalog from the MOMA exhibit ever been reproduced? Or have any HAMBers seen a copy for sale on eBay or elsewhere?
     
  25. 50Fraud
    Joined: May 6, 2001
    Posts: 10,101

    50Fraud
    Member

    Just noticed that Geoff Hacker posted a coverage of MOMA's subsequent show "10 Automobiles", which was exhibited in 1953, on his Forgotten Fiberglass website. All the choices were postwar models, but the Studebaker was the only American production car represented. There were two limited production models that were American-international hybrids, the Cunningham C3 coupe and the Nash Healey:

    http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/...f-art-the-museum-of-modern-art-moma-new-york/
     

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