Automotive Art also referred to as Auto Art, and Car Art is a rapidly
growing form of mainly photo realistic painting of cars. Car Art should
not be confused with Art Cars where the cars themselves become the
art or sculpture built over a car.
To begin to judge the merits of Automotive art we need to understand
the impact of the relatively new category of fine art called automotive
art. We must do a number of things the first of which is to try to
understand what art and fine art is. I say this because the acceptability
of car art is not universal in all establishment art circles and this
is not hesitation to accept individual styles, pieces or layout but
sometimes the rejection of the whole genre. Often the art "establishment"
wishes to define what is good taste and what is not and to be the
gatekeepers as to what should be regarded as of higher or lesser value.
We must also determine what an illustration is and what the contribution
of automotive styling has done to this rapidly proliferating subject
matter.
Fine Art.
Online American Heritage Dictionary describes fine art as:
Noun:
1. Art produced or intended primarily for beauty rather than utility.
2. Any of the art forms, such as sculpture, painting, or music, used
to create such art. Often used in the plural.
The term has been used to define the Visual Arts and not arts that reflect
a craft or have a utilitarian aspect. Fine Art requires discipline
in the field of painting, printmaking, sculpture and or architecture.
There is no precise definition for art and there probably never will
be since what has been acceptable has changed sometimes from generation
to generation. Today abstract and impressionistic artists are more
favorably looked on by the establishment than realist painters. But
over a century ago this situation was reversed. It took a while for
the first French impressionist painters to be accepted. Also, the
science used to enable artwork as it involves supports (canvases),
the chemistry of pigments, techniques and other things such as lighting
have affected the results we see today. The use of perspective during
the renaissance and non objective art at the end of the 19th century
changed how we looked at art.
Another very important change in art that may or may not affect the
viewpoint some have on automotive art as worthy of being included
as a subject matter for fine art is the loss of importance of narrative
in art today.
Historically narrative or story telling has been an important part
of painted images from those found on tombs, temples and palace walls
in archeological digs to the scenes depicted in domestic paintings
by the Renaissance masters all the way up to the canvases of realist
painters of the 19th century.
Much of automotive art tells a story though there are some works that
are impressionistic and border on being non objective in some areas
of the canvas or work. To those who do not know the terms impressionism
was developed in France in the late 1800s and refers to the play of
light on an object with a resulting color change through time. Primary
colors were often used and the objects were not well defined. Non
objectivism is a term used to define a canvas where objects are not
identifiable on the painting.
I believe that because automotive art relies on realism to depict
its primary subject mater in its most flattering way it has run the
risk of being looked upon by some of the art establishment as not
particularly at the cutting edge of any art movement and in fact maybe
as a throwback to an earlier movement. There are arguments for this
viewpoint but there are also arguments for the merits of depicting
cars as part of our history and because they did so much to shape
man’s civilization for the last hundred years they should have
an important place in our artistic expression. It is also necessary
to take into consideration the merits of each genre of art and not
disqualify any for varying reasons many of which are unsupportable.
Using the simple definition provided above by the Online American
Heritage Dictionary then automotive art qualifies as Fine Art as it
is intended not as a functional object but for its beauty in depicting
real objects.
How to judge individual
automotive art.
Today we have gotten too involved with the execution of a thing and
the precision of its creation at the sacrifice of its value. By value
I mean whether an object can elevate passion or instruct us individually
into the reason for the objects creation. Are we intellectually stimulated
or challenged any more. The other day I saw an ad for a Lexus that
parks itself . As one who has always love automobiles I would rather
park the damn thing myself thank you very much. But, then many with
that kind of money will not buy themselves a vintage sports car but
rather the thing that though well executed has the excitement of a
zucchini in both style and thrill of driving. Nothing much is hand
built any more and many things have lost their character or uniqueness.
I have read that it is more difficult to create a successful abstract
painting than it is to create a realistic one and also the reverse.
There are reasons to hold to both views. Each requires the composition
to follow the elements of art or design which are what an artist uses
to control and unify the space on which the work is set. Line, shape,
color, form, space and texture are these elements.
