The desire to express individuality by customizing and otherwise personalizing automobiles has been a part of car culture throughout its history. From the hot rods and customs of the 1950s to monster trucks and lowriders of today, fantasy-inspired manipulations of form and function have been a creative outlet for countless car lovers throughout the world. All of these forms of automotive expression have had an influence on the contemporary Art Car movement, which allows people to express their individuality in a uniquely personal way.

Art Cars are defined as decorated, yet driveable street-legal vehicles that can be used regularly for going to work, running errands, or taking a trip. This functional aspect distinguishes them from show vehicles such as radical customs, heavily modified lowriders, and monster trucks, which can't be driven for more than a few minutes-if at all-and were designed according to different aesthetic standards. While these other categories of modifications may aim to embellish, enhance, and highlight the inherent beauty and power of an automobile, Art Car artists tend to ignore these objectives, building entirely new and original creations.

The modifications an Art Car artist might make to a car are considered an affront to some, but many critics may not realize that the artist is simply expressing a kind of creative freedom allowed in few other countries. Vehicle codes in England and Germany, for example, are so strict that Art Cars are virtually non-existent. In the United States, discouragement from creating art cars comes mainly in the form of social pressures to conform, so the car's creator should have a tolerance for criticism in addition to a passion for their vision.

The first contemporary Art Cars appeared in the 1970s in isolated areas throughout the country. They were created independently by people who had a desire to express themselves, but had no knowledge that there were others with a similar mind-set. Whatever their motivation, early Art Car artists played a key role in inspiring others, simply by proving that creatively modifying one's own car was a possibility.

A few scattered Art Car exhibitions held in the mid-1970s at museums helped further the movement. It was, however, during the early 1980s that Art Cars were first created in significant numbers. The annual Art Car Fest in San Francisco and similar events in Minneapolis, Baltimore, and Seattle have been instrumental in popularizing Art Cars. Curated by Ann Harithas, the 1983 Collision exhibit at the University of Houston spawned the renowned Houston Art Car Parade, which has grown in recent years to include nearly 250 Art Cars and is watched by 125,000 spectators. Permanent exhibitions have been established at the Art Car Museum and the Art Car Park in Houston, and most recently at Art Car World in Walnut Grove, California. Sharing the magic of this phenomenon, the author has produced three documentary films, Wild Wheels (1992), Driving the Dream (1998), and Auto Biography (2002); and two books, Wild Wheels and Art Cars: the Cars, the Artists, the Obsession, the Craft. Another film that explores the psyches of Art Car artists is scheduled to be released in the spring. By providing legitimate display opportunities, these events celebrate the medium and provide an atmosphere of encouragement and support that inspires others to create their own Art Cars.

As with most forms of folk and visionary art, many Art Car makers never considered themselves "artists" before realizing their feats of creativity. Howard Davis, of Avon, Massachusetts was obsessed with telephones since childhood, finally building the Telephone Car, which looks like a gigantic telephone rolling down the road, to take his collection to new heights. The late Ernie Steingold, of Burbank, California was a successful vacuum cleaner repairman who found fulfillment in covering his California Fantasy Van with thousands of decorative brass objects. Art Cars are created for many reasons, in different ways, by a variety of people and with every highway and byway as a gallery.

The creation of Art Cars does not require specialized training or societal validation, nor does it require substantial finances or an adherence to established standards. The world of Art Cars invites and includes anyone with a vehicle and a creative impulse. There are no rules for making an Art Car, no guidelines to follow, and no boundaries. Without established standards, cultural expectations, or inflated esteem for particular automobiles, contemporary Art Car artists have channeled a freedom of expression that is based upon treating the car as simply a canvas.

Harrod Blank
Guest Researcher

Wild Wheels: Art for the Road is on view from February 8 through May 26, 2003.

The exhibition is made possible in part by generous support from FARMERS INSURANCE GROUP.