American Dreaming Exhibition:
April 17–May 2, 2015
Detroit’s Golden Age of Automotive Design
I received this from Robert Edwards and Bill Porter:
Thank you for plugging the exhibit. It is an amazing amount of work trying to pull this off in such a short time. I spent most of yesterday with a couple of your friends from GM; Roger Hughet and Galen Wickersham. There will be close to 100 artworks and styling models on display. All of the attached images will be in the show. There will be approximately 100 total works, including Bill Schmidt’s Ford Futura scale model on loan from The Henry Ford Museum. I am still soliciting invitations to exhibit; We want this to be the best exhibit possible. In the past, many shows have included student or portfolio work and advertising illustrations. However, this will be only design studio work from the 1946-1973 period. It is much more aligned with the “Designing an Icon” show on the artwork of the “Muscle-Car” era that Bill Porter put together several years ago.
Where: The gallery of the University Technology and Learning Center, Lawrence Technological University
When: Opening Reception: Friday April 17, 4–8 pm
Panel Discussion: Wednesday, April 29, 7 pm
Architecture Auditorium (A200)—Retired automotive designers and art historians discuss the era, the art and it’s place in American art history.
For every vintage or classic car we admire, there was an artist who worked in small groups in the car companies’ design studios who dreamed, designed and drew that car with pencil and paper. Company policy mandated preliminary artwork be destroyed after the final designs were selected for production, so the vast majority of this artwork has disappeared. This exhibition is an opportunity to see the rare automotive artworks created in Detroit and their contribution to American culture.
This exhibit of original automotive concept art is the subject of a documentary film, “American Dreaming” scheduled to be released in 2016. Private collectors nationwide have lent artworks for this exhibition. Exhibition runs from April 17 – May 2, 2015.
The exhibit is open to the public daily from Noon–5 p.m. in the gallery of the University Technology and Learning Center.
“Cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals—the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists.”
Lawrence Technological University
21000 West 10 Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48075
(248) 204-4000
I am wondering who did the fantastic rendering of the Four Fendered Farkle?
It is an exaggerated presentation of the car, Roger?
Dick Ruzzin
Critical funds are needed to complete this documentary film. See a teaser clip and consider making a tax-deductible contribution American Dreaming’s Indiegogo campaign:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/american-dreaming-mid-century-car-design-on-film/x/8457886
I spoke to Roger in person about the sketch. The date may be wrong but he told me that Mitchell asked him to make it. Later a car was started in Studio X and then sent to the Advanced Oldsmobile Studio where I had just been assigned to be carried forward and be cast in fiberglass. We did that and six months later I was again reassigned to the International Studio, I have read that it then went to Oldsmobile Studio, was continued on and finally rejected by Oldsmobile Division where the effort came to an end.
From a design standpoint it probably scared Oldsmobile as t was even more radical than the 66 Toronado that was wonderful but did not sell to their satisfaction. The Olds Division “dream” Toronado would have looked like an Eldorado. Consequently Toronado design kept drifting in that direction.
DICK RUZZIN
Dick,
I cannot give you the dates, but that rendering was done of the four fendered farkle while I was in Studio X working on that car. Jim Biek and I were working there at the time. We had already gotten the design to be very close to what that rendering shows. I cannot remember who did it, but I can remember being in awe of it. My recollection was that Bill Mitchell requested it for his office. I always remembered it and now I see it here almost exactly as I remembered it. In addition to the amazing warm and cool coloring I was inspired by the “cracked desert” texture on the ground. I mimicked both of those in future renderings of my own. I have a drawing of my own that shows the rear 3/4 view of this car as it was when it left Studio X.
Dave Mc intost , Juile Edwards helped me get Roger’s 42 years of car art organized. While going though hundreds of art works, many we have never seen before, we found the pencil drawing of the Four Fendered Farkle, a photo of a clay model of a Farkle, and another fabulous rendering that Roger did of a different Four Fendered Farkle. It quite a find & I wish Roger could tell us about these drawing. Thank goodness that some of the car guys know some things of this work. Roger told me that he was never in the studio that was working on the car. Bill Mitchell came to Roger who was in an Advance studio & asked for him to do a design & rendering. This other rendering is really cool and Dave really liked it. It has never been shown, but I posted it today on my Face book site.