Art on wheels: When cars become marvelous creations

Farhad Hussain designing the car for CCC

A car that is a great work of art at the same time retaining all its functionalities.  When Delhi-based artist Farhad Hussain specially painted a Maruti Eeco car in his signature style in the campus of The Velammal International School (TVIS), as part of the Velammal Art Tour, it was a new experience that brought the students closer to the colourful and wider world of art. That was the ultimate aim behind this unique cultural extravaganza organised by Chitravathi Centre for Creativity (CCC) for Velammal Knowledge Park, Ponneri.
This car, which is full of the playful images of the vibrant life and its spirit, naturally evinced the interest of the students and other visitors alike about similar creative experiments done earlier.
There are a few such works of art done in the past in different parts of the world, including India that transformed cars into great works of art. While some were widely discussed, some faded into oblivion. Let’s have a look at some of those creations.

Sonia Delaunay

One prominent artist who applied her artistic talent to paint a car was Parisian Avant-Garde painter and designer Sonia Delaunay, way back in 1925. Born Sarah Stern in Ukraine, Sonia reached Paris in 1910, where she established her career as an artist and fashion designer. Delaunay always maintained a modern sensibility that she did her first art work on car, as early as 1925, and painted a Citroën B12. Then, in 1967, at the age of 82, she painted a colorful car, a Matra 530, in large race-flag checks of sky-blue and royal blue, sage green and red. However, the design was such that while on move the colours merged to blue, so that it would not distract others.

The Matra 530 that Sonia Delaunay painted

Another major artist who did a car art was Damien Hirst. He painted a Spot Mini in 2000 and then in 2010, this British artist designed an Audi A1 for Sir Elton John’s AIDS Foundation (EJAF). When it was auctioned as part of charity, the car raised £350,000. Incidentally, this inspired BMW to launch its art car series. Nearly 19 artists including Frank Stella, Andy Warhol and David Hockney became part of this.

Cars designed by Damien Hirst

Then there was Picasso’s Citroën 2CV, done by British custom car creator Andy Saunders in 2007. As the name suggests, the car was inspired by the cubist works of legendary Pablo Picasso, especially his ‘Three Musicians’ and ‘Portrait of Dora Maar’. 

Further, there is the famous Ferrari F430 done by graffiti art legend John Matos aka Crash in 2015.  It was followed by three cars designed by three artists as part of a live automotive painting event hosted by the Macaya Gallery and the Hoerle Guggenheim Art Gallery in Miami’s Art Basel.
Also, there are other art cars including, Marcel Wanders’ VW Beetle-based Antelope (2004), Banksy’s Triumph GT6 MkIII (2005), Tracey Emin’s Fiat 500 (2007) and Peter Blake’ s Bentley Continental GT (2016) to mention a few, which attracted the art lovers.
Though the history of art car dates back to early 20th century, it gained popularity in the 1960s. During this period, singer Janis Joplin had a psychedelically-painted Porsche 356 with him while John Lennon had a Rolls Royce with custom and outlandish design, which prompted many art lovers to covert cars into works of art.

Bose Krishnamachari's Maximum Nano

In India, we have some marvelous examples of art cars. One was by renowned artist Bose Krishnamachari, who transformed a Nano car into a work of art in 2013. Painted by in connection with the Kochi Muziris Biennale, it fetched over Rs 13 lakh in an auction by Saffronart.
While these are all paintings, veteran artist (late)Yusuf Arakkal created an amazing sculpture out of his 1956 model Fiat Millecento. Named ‘Arto-mobile’, this is a sculpture and an installation at the same time.

Yusuf Arakkal's Arto-mobile

Here he covered the car with copper trimmings and created intricate designs on that. In this work, the artist brought together the elements of the Egyptian and Indus valley civilizations. This way, he infused an ancient element into a car that is a metaphor of the age of technology and machines. 
The journey of the car, which became a piece of poetry, is also an intimate story. He bought this car in 1984 from his friend and art collector Harish Padmanabha in exchange of two paintings and a sculpture. Later, when new cars came into his household, there was a proposal to sell it, but he did not want to part with it. Thus he decided to give it a new avatar in association with his artist friend Joseph Antony, thus transforming it into a copper sculpture.
Incidentally, there is a privately-owned ArtCar Museum located at Houston in the United States. The museum, nicknamed ‘Garage Mahal’, was opened in February, 1998. Its emphasis is on art cars, fine arts, and artists that are rarely seen in other cultural institutions. It was founded as a not-for-profit arts organization by Ann Harithas, artist and long-time supporter of the Art Car movement, and James Harithas, currently Director of the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas.
Yes, car is not just another vehicle. It is also a piece of art , and its journey does not end here.