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Top view Of One Of Kent's Art Cars |
| Today they call them Art Cars but back in the chaotic 1960's they didn't have a term for them. It was new and like most new art forms without a fancy catch phrase, label or category they simply were considered an oddity and passed by. This often happens when it's not something cooked up
by either the galleries or the museums. Sometimes a new art form becomes a social phenomenon that simply cannot be ignored any longer.
On the road to recognition before it runs the gauntlet of critics it first needs some kind of popular pop culture handle or name so it can be put under the microscope for examination. Once the armchair experts have done this, it's ready to be properly weighed, measured, dissected and digested. Shortly after
this they can take credit for having discovered
it. Now that the art has been pigeon holed the historians can put it into historical perspective. When all these processes are complete the final "cash in on it" stage is then put into motion.
It is because of this that most new art forms and their authors remain unknown. Years may pass while the fledgling art form takes root and becomes a force and eventually the experts wake from their slumber of self-absorbed importance to a whole new crowd claiming credit for it's
origin.
Painting on cars is nothing new. Car painting has it's roots in the ornamental design of carriage making that in turn has a history that dates back to the dawn of history. But a car is not a carriage. Flames and
pinstriping or a few flowers and a peace sign do not make an Art Car.
According to Art Car pioneer Kent Bash what constitutes an Art Car is that a significant, distinct or profound step has been taken to transform a car into a work of art. |
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Kent Working On One of his Art Bikes 1965 |
In the 1950's, television was new. T.V. programming and commercials began to broadcast a view of America that didn't really exist. Happy housewives dancing about the kitchen with
all the new appliances that makes housework and raising kids blissful joy and images of the equally happy husbands heading off to work with a spring in their step and smiles on their faces.
But these images of happiness in Leave-It-to-Beaverville began to get some wormie little holes punched in them with such landmark books as Sloan Wilson's 1955 novel "The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit". This book
became a symbol of what was and is wrong with American Business; stodgy, blind obedience to executive authority, conformity and lack of real creativity.
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| Betty Friedan's 1963 book, "The Feminine Mystique", which popped the bubble of the female roll in this plastic daydream and, of course, the book that gave us the Beat generation, Jack
Kerouac's "On The Road", which spelled relief and a way out. All of these became the fodder of the 1960's.
The 1960's started out quiet enough but the influence was now part of the recipe and as the decade unfolded; the Beatles invaded America with a new sound that inspired a music and social revolution, President Kennedy was assassinated, our involvement in Vietnam was growing and the volatile civil rights movement was about to explode.
The turbulent times brought about a new consciousness, a lets get back to nature, down with materialism, anti-big business, anti-war, save the environment, equal rights, and women's liberation. This was the social
boiling cauldron and back drop that gave birth to the Art Car.
In 1962 Kent Bash organized his high school's first student art show. The show was underway when he arrived to find three of his teachers censoring his work; defacing it. Rather than simply taking down the
display the teachers were painting over anything that seemed questionable. Bash flipped out and yelled at them for destroying his work. This experience became the seed of the Mobile Art Project and Bash became obsessed with the idea of creating a work of art that could be displayed in public without
being subject to censorship. |
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Photo Copyright Ulvis Alberst 1972 |
Bash was a car nut even back in high school. His love affair with automobiles is what put him on the road to becoming an artist.
In that same year a guy at the corner gas station asked him if he would be interested in trading his 1955 Buick for his 1957 VW Bug. Bash turned down the offer but the shape of the ugly VW stuck in his mind and became
the subject of numerous drawings. Until an idea hit him.
The idea of painting on something other than canvas was not exactly a new one. Bash had already hand painted a few guitars, a motorcycle, some cork panels and even some roofing shingles glued on
plywood. He began to divide one of his bug drawings into panels. A bug could be the perfect vehicle to test himself and to put his idea in motion. VW Bugs are ugly so it would be no great loss if he screwed one up
painting it.
In 1963 Bash traded his 1949 Ford Woodie for a 1958 V.W. Bug and his Mobile Art project began. Bash wanted to be an artist very bad but didn't know if he had what it would take to become one so the painting you could
drive idea became symbolic to him on a number of levels.
He wondered if he had enough courage to become an artist and he thought this project would put him to the test. |
| Bash had a real problem with authority causing problems at home and school. It wasn't that he was a bad kid but he didn't like being bullied by adults who he felt abused their authority.
Bash's
Mobile Art Project represented his voice crying out to be free. His anger was turned in to energy; the energy that fueled the first couple of Art Cars. His intention was not to start some
kind of movement but to be able to do at least one thing without adult interference.
Bash's first art car caused parents to panic. People were shocked by it. They labeled it "sacrilegious" as though some sacred religious icon had been desecrated. The fact is it wouldn't have
really mattered what the subject matter was, just violating a car with a paint job other than car-like was an outrage all by itself.
The painting took about five
thousand hours and from the moment it rolled onto the driveway and onto the street, Bash had trouble. The Mobile Art Car racked up eighty tickets in the first year with only one conviction. The local police seemed to
think Bash was some kind of cop killer, drug dealer, hippy- nonconformist, Individualist, anti-war monger. So consequently, he was stopped, searched and generally harassed by just about every cop on the beat. |
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The Image For A Closer L@@K Photo Copyright Ulvis Alberst 1972 |
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Bash's dilemma grew more complex after graduation because now he had to sweat the draft. Bash went to college to avoid the draft and worked full time.
His world now had more authority figures than ever. He finally snapped at one of his art teachers and quit college only to get drafted a few months later. Bash thought he would probably be dead before he would ever be able to
make a decision concerning his own life.
To Bash the adult world looked grim and frankly it offered little hope.
The Art Car project offered an escape from a world filled with to many adults telling you what to do, where
to go, what to believe in, how to think and which interests are worth pursuing.
Retrospectively, The Art Cars were his coming of age project. Through the Art Cars Bash gained a larger view of the world adding to his perception and to his developing capabilities. Bash began
to realize that his life was little more than a piece of currency that the government was more than willing to spend with little regard. |
| In 1965 when I was traveling Europe, I kept an eye open for news from home.
The European news networks were obsessed with the social upheaval back in the States. The nightly news always seemed to be flooded with news about the Civil Rights movement, Anti War protests and Rock Festivals. It was in this context that I first saw Kent Bash and his Art Cars.
The Europeans flipped out over them because they were so American and because they had never
seen anything like it.
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Click The Image For A Closer L@@K |
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Click The Image For A Closer L@@K
Photo Copyright Ulvis Alberst 1972 |
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