We had both D children home for Christmas holidays, so decided to take a family trip to our local art gallery.
Our main reason for visiting was to take in an exhibition of Vivian Maier photographs. If you’ve never heard of her she was an eccentric Chicago nanny who took lots of photos but rarely showed them to anyone. Following her death she has become famous for her candid street photography of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Being street photography, cars (like this 1957 Imperial) pop up regularly in her work. Because she used a Rolleiflex medium format camera the shots make for stunningly detailed large prints, if you can take in a physical exhibition of her work I heartily recommend it.
We also examined the museum’s permanent collection. I discussed this sculpture with my daughter:
“See this here, where the door is pressed in so you can wrap you hand around the handle. See how this ridge drops subtly along the door and then dives toward the point at the front? That’s the real art here, now if we could just clean off all this stuff and take the VW home we could really do something with this.”
However I admit that as an engineer and a car guy I have a different perspective on modern art than others. 🙂
Afterwards we went to a good taco joint downtown, a rarity in Canada and a great way to finish up a fun afternoon with the whole D family.
My first thought also was to clear off the rare crew cab T1 of all that “art” and get it back in running/driving condition.
“Every car is a canvas for its owner.”
Sounds like a fun family day!
When I was working in L.A. in the early 80’s I used to occasionally see art cars on the streets. Crazy designs with doll heads and other household items glued all over the car. Sometimes there were things protruding from the front of the car, other times they extended from the rear deck. I don’t remember seeing them on the freeway unless it was rush hour. I can imagine that the air stream would tear off some of the components at higher speeds. No, I never saw this one.
Too much stuff piled on that poor VW truck.
I prefer my auto-oriented modern art to be more Minimalist.
Vivian Maier was a self-portraitist, too. That photo of her with her Rolleiflex is one. There is a whole book of her self-portraits, hundreds of them.
https://www.amazon.com/Vivian-Maier-Self-Portraits-John-Maloof/dp/1576876624
Art, tacos, and cats from outer space – an early nominee for CC’s ‘Best of 2019’. 🙂
There was a great documentary made about Vivian Maier a few years ago (‘Finding Vivian Maier’), that is intermittently available on Netflix. There’s also a BBC documentary about her on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gQ5aUUhvlQ)
Tacos, cars, photos and family – sounds like a great time.
Definitely sounds like a great time. Don’t worry; you aren’t alone in that VW bothering engineering sensibilities.
Hmmm the website says that the VW bus art exhibit is “ongoing”. I hope that means it will stay as is, as opposed to any more junk being piled on to it. Definitely not minimalist! Candy and Martin could have used this in the Planes Trains etc. movie! LOL
The naturalness of the cats emphasizes the utter acid-trip weirdness of the Imperial. The flat and useless trunk, the toilet seat, the auxiliary toilet seat for gas, the ET eyes, the non-protective bumper.
(I’ll bet 8/7/14 was the owner’s wedding anniversary.)
Those bored cats underneath the Chevy Impy spacecraft are ingenious.
Hi, do you mean the Imperial?
Thank you for sharing this with us! Good times indeed.
And if there was anything mass produced more bizarre than those Imperials, I’d love to hear about it. 🤔😉🙌
Never heard of this photographer gal, I’ll look her up.
Mixed feelings about that VW art van. I know I’m supposed to feel the artists pain about moderne industrial meaningless life devoid of humanity and music and poetry and centredness and handmade cheese and all that. But man, that’s a nice, and rare, VW!! Can’t the same artistic point be made with an ’09 Chevy Cruz?
“Afterwards we went to a good taco joint downtown, a rarity in Canada”
I’ve been to your loverly country a few times. Mostly Ontario. Asked our hosts where the litter and graffiti were stored. Do they bring it out on special occasions?? I was ill at ease in a nation that looked so pristine, felt like I was going to bring down the property values. And all the kids wore their helmets when riding their bikes, I asked why. “It’s the law” I was informed. Huh. Who’d a thought, people obeying a law like that?
All we have are taco shops here. Some pretty good, some not. There are three such joints a quick walk from our front door, skip the first two.
That VW needs a good scrape of its carbunkles. I’ve seen a doco on Vivian Maier – eccentric but definitely driven in pursuit of her art. Which at times is extraordinarily good.
Love that Imperial shot, but the art element of the VW largely passes me by.
Still, sounds like a great afternoon out!