Art Cars, Explained. Or Not.

My definition of "art car" is a BMW, repainted by an artist with a modicum of talent. Which means, like AlexD, the Andy Warhol version barely makes the cut (did he even give it five minutes of thought before slapping on the paint?) - and all those lesser examples are nothing more than pretentious crap thrust on the world by some talentless idiot determined to gain recognition as an "artist". Yeah, right.

I've seen a number of interesting art cars, but I agree with the first poster that most are crap. There is (or was) an absolutely stunning Microbus art car in Providence RI; I love Janis Joplin's Porsche, and I have some interesting art cars on my website, motorlegends.com, including from the Yugo Next exhibit.

Sadly, the term "art car" has been totally hijacked and ruined by bad hippie wanna-be artists who think any vaguely creative act (gluing crap on a car for instance) is by definition art, and thereby worthy even if no symbolic thought or quality of craftsmanship is displayed. When the overriding theme seems to be just drawing attention, you can guess it is crap. Some art cars exist that really are worthy of being considered art, the Golden Mean for instance: http://www.formandreform.com/wordpress/?page_id=388 And certainly the better of the cars where a graphic artist or painter has used the car as a canvas should considered worthwhile. I feel like I can comment with some authority because I have done 11 "art cars" of sorts for various burning man camps, including a swarm of 9 electric bumble bees (each of which could carry up to 4 peaple). The thing is, none of them were really art, they were props, and I would never pretend they were more. That said, one of the bees was recently rebuilt by someone who created a stunning aluminum, steel, and hardwood body - a display of style and workman that is absolutely worthy of being considered art. Speaking of questionable art, Regretsy is one of the funniest sites on the web! http://www.regretsy.com/ I also feel I should throw out a link to my own Etsy store in shameless self promotion: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7213975 I don't sell a lot through the site, but it has been a fabulous source for gallery contacts and connections.

Keep Austin Weird