Dans Papers - May 11, 2007 -

The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton hosted their first ever event with automobiles on Saturday, May 5. The current exhibit at the Parrish, on display until May 27, is called, "Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture." Loewy was well known for many famous designs of everything from lipstick to locomotives, but he is probably best known for his designs for Studebaker, including the beautiful Regal Champion of 1954 and the advanced 1963 Avanti, both currently on display at the Parrish Art Museum.

Loewy became involved in the emerging world of industrial design in the 1920s after a successful career in commercial illustration. He would become one of the best-known industrial designers in the world, even appearing on the cover of Time Magazine in 1949. He spent more than five decades streamlining and modernizing silverware, fountain pens, supermarkets, department stores, Studebakers and broiler ovens. His clients included such iconic companies as Coca-Cola, Exxon, Nabisco, and Lucky Strike.

Students in The Parrish Art Museum/Southampton High School Collaborative Enrichment Program have spent the school year studying the decades during which Raymond Loewy was active. Each student has carefully researched a decade from the 1930s to 1970s, focusing on various aspects of history, media, culture and commerce. To complete their studies, students created short videos on each decade. These videos will be on view as a complement to the exhibition.

The event on Saturday included a lecture on classic car design by Walter Gosden. Gosden is the former vice president, director, and editor of the Society of Automotive Historians, as well as an elementary school art teacher. His talk was about an hour long and explained the various element of early automotive design, including the technological constraints of early automobiles. He also explained in detail the different construction methods used prior to the Second World War.

After the lecture, there were a wide variety of antique and classic cars to be viewed on the west lawn of the Parrish, while music from the 1930s through the 1950s was played. There were approximately 22 cars on display in total. The cars overflowed from the lawn into the parking lot. The oldest car was a 1915 Ford Fire Chief's car brought by George and Mary Strom from Shelter Island. Other interesting cars included a 1954 Kaiser Darrin owned by Mary Redlus, a 1933 Marmon V16 owned by Leon DeBremont, and a 1932 Franklin owned by Steve Braverman.

The Kaiser Darrin was designed by Howard "Dutch" Darrin, and is noted for having a fiberglass body. GM had just introduced on the Chevrolet Corvette in 1953, and was quite proud of the new technology of fiberglass. Kaiser was a small, independent automaker, and their ability to produce their own fiberglass sports car was a testament to their ability. Kaiser eventually merged with Willys Motors and became Kaiser-Jeep before being absorbed into American Motors Company (AMC), which was then purchased by Chrysler Corp in 1986.

Marmon was a high-end automaker known for winning the first Indianapolis 500 in 1909. They built their last passenger cars in 1933. The 1933 V16 shown was a magnificent example of engineering. The only other production car to ever offer a 16 cylinder engine was Cadillac. The Marmon version was more powerful, however that did not help the company to survive the Great Depression. Marmon continued to build trucks, and the last Marmon truck was built in 1996. The company survives today as Marmon-Herrington, and builds Four Wheel Drive conversion kit for heavy-duty trucks.

Franklin built air-cooled cars in Syracuse from 1932-1934. They were known for their engineering excellence. Franklin developed many automotive firsts, including the first four-cylinder engine in 1897. After ceasing to build cars due to the Great Depression, the company was reorganized as Air Cooled Motors and continued to build engines for industrial use and aviation. Franklin aircraft engines are still built today in Poland.

Admission was $5 for Parrish members and $7 for non-members however, admission was free for those who exhibited cars. Car owners enjoyed VIP status, and were also provided with a free lunch. There are no plans to make Artful Automobiles into an annual event, but the possibility has not been ruled out by the Museum. Hopefully, this will become a tradition at the Parrish.

The Parrish Art Museum is located at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton. They can be reached at (631) 283-2118 or at www.parrishart.org.