Streamlined Sculpture

Beginning in the 1930s, the confluence of aircraft design, the sleek shapes of fast railroad locomotives, advanced highways like the German Autobahns, the Italian Autostradas, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, along with epoch-changing global events like the 1939 New York City World’s Fair, encouraged automotive designers and engineers to style truly streamlined cars. This exhibition presents a select group of rare automobiles and motorcycles that demonstrate how automobile designers translated the popular new concept of aerodynamic efficiency into exciting machines that looked as though they were moving while at rest. Ken Gross, former Executive Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, served as Guest Curator. He notes: “the twenty rare cars and two motorcycles in this exhibition were designed without the myriad safety and crash-absorbing constraints that affect the look and shape of the modern automobile. The operative charge was that they be sleek and streamlined.“