Art cars: they're auto exotic

Art cars: they're auto exotic


The Fruitmobile on display in Houston at Everyone's Art Car Parade in May 2006. NYT
Junk or genius? Cartists are turning their drives into masterpieces

Joanne Will

Published on Wednesday, Mar. 31, 2010 2:26PM EDT

Last updated on Wednesday, Mar. 31, 2010 3:42PM EDT


My partner thinks he's an artist. He has a massive collection of Happy Meal toys and other kitschy junk. When I moved in I told him that stuff had to go, so he took it out to the garage. Now he's gluing it to the car. It’s not the best car, but it’s our car. He says it’s art. I think he’s ruining the vehicle, not to mention straining our relationship. What should I do?

Eye of the Beholder

You've either got grounds for divorce, or a genius on your hands. If your partner has decided to become a “cartist,” why not try encouraging him?

Pop-art pioneers Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and more than a dozen others have created BMW Art Cars. These automobiles, and John Lennon's psychedelic '65 Rolls Royce, are arguably at the high end of art-car-culture. Further, the countless folk-art cars used as daily drivers are a testament to the popularity of this road-culture movement.


The art of the drive
Check out a gallery of Art Cars, from a high-end Rauschenberg to a low-end condiment-covered car

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Toy Karma, the car driven and decorated by writer and poet Susan Musgrave provided my first exposure to an art car. It was a familiar sight on Vancouver Island during my university days. A few years later, at the annual Art Car Parade in Houston, I first witnessed the enormous and unique community which rallies around the art car scene.

Ken Gerberick, one of the most prolific car artists in Canada, has created nine masterpieces so far. On a recent visit to his studio, I asked about the paperwork and regulations required for art-car ownership. He laughed and said there are very few rules. Ken's vehicles are simply registered as “multi-coloured.” He advises all would-be car artists to use good glue and screws, with no objects protruding more than five inches from the vehicle. When it comes time to clean the car, just make sure you've got a whole day set aside for washing it – one piece at a time.

Ken's van, known as the Copy Cat, is his homage to 40 of the world's great art cars. A big part of his process is to make art from materials that have been used, abused and discarded. The parts on Copy Cat, excluding silicon and screws, cost him less than $10. It's a marvel to behold. His first piece was a '57 Pontiac, which he covered in 6,000 car emblems. And then there's his Cadillac Estate Wagon. It features vintage furnace covers on the headlights, a Kirby vacuum cleaner nozzle, a clothes-dryer dial, a piece from an analog computer, a wheel from a hospital gurney which displays the phases of the moon when spun, a 100-year-old ceiling tile on each side panel, a stylized scene of Vancouver, and an air horn and speaker mounted on the roof. And the dash? That's another story.

Do you have an old beater in need of a makeover? Apart from pure viewing pleasure, art on a vehicle can hide the rust and dents. It can also be a clever piece of marketing for an artist. An art car is, after all, a mobile sculpture which can be permanently exhibited in any location. One accountant says that driving it around to promote your art means that within reason, you can write off the art supplies. In any case, when it stops running, the parts can be harvested and sold as objets d'art .

It sounds as though your partner's creation is not exactly to your taste. If you don't want to be your man's muse, why not be a collaborator on the project? Take a romantic road trip to the Houston Art Car Parade, or any one of the art car fests held across North America. You'll find plenty of inspiration and ideas. Why should the big ticket auto designers get paid tons of money and have all the fun? Many cars these days look like the result of one too many marketing-focus-group meetings, so why worry if your creation ends up looking a bit strange?

Besides, there's nothing quite like the look of wonder and confusion on the face of a child riding in a brand new Mercedes when they spot a work of contemporary car art and breathlessly ask, “Mom! Can we please glue McDonald's toys on our car?”