Art

Newman or Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic?

Marion, who plays on the child-like assumption that cars of the future would fly, shows his vision of how these vehicles might appear. The images of floating classics are given a charming twist, as they marry the past with the future. The photographer used a series of classic cars to augment his vision, including two Mercedes-Benzes, a Jaguar XK and a Cadillac STS.

While auctions in New York and London continue to break records, it’s at Basel, with its satellite exhibitions ‘Art Unlimited’ and ‘Design Miami/Basel’, where buyers flock to purchase expensive works of contemporary art and design straight ‘off the wall’ (or floor).
(‘Someone is getting rich’ is a neon work by Claire Fontaine based on graffiti found in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It is being exhibited at Art 43, Basel by the Regina Gallery.)

However, British sculptor Chris Gilmour’s life-sized version is not fashioned from gold or carbon nanotubes – but discarded cardboard boxes.

The faithfully recreated Aston not only looks the part, but also staunchly sports all the relevant ‘Q-Branch’ modifications, as well as the correct ‘BMT 216A’ registration plate. It’s this attention to detail which makes the ‘car’ appear so life-like: were its sections to be painted in silver-birch rather than wearing the ‘fragile’ symbols from their former life, one could easily mistake it for the original. At a distance, anyway.

With his art, Warhol decisively interpreted American pop culture. His subjects have ranged from typical American everyday objects such as Campbell’s soup tins and Coca-Cola bottles, up to the big Hollywood stars including Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. But he was also devoted to the automobile as a symbol of progress and a central element of American consciousness, and he produced numerous drawings, prints, paintings and photographs on the subject. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is now showing 40-plus works with automotive themes.

"In a culture in which people are easily lured by the appeal of status-enhancing symbols,” says Kevin Cyr, “I find beauty in derelict cars and unkempt landscapes. I have always been interested in painting vehicles and scenes that have defined the evolution of the American landscape.”

The Bradford-born painter, who will be 75 this year, is known for the diversity of his work which has ranged from his celebrated series of swimming pool pictures created while living in California during the 1960s, to the 'joiners' photo collages formed with Polaroid prints.

He has also worked on stage designs for Glyndebourne and La Scala, created an entire book based on drawings of his Dachshund dogs and embraced computer art programmes such as the Quantel Paintbox of the 1980s and, most recently, the iPad 'Brushes' application.

The man behind the gallery is Maximilian Büsser, the founder of MB&F watches. MB&F makes some of the world’s most unusual watches, employing mechanisms more often seen in antique clockwork toys or fairgrounds.

The jump from watches to the similarly unique works of mechanical art was an obvious one.

“We saw the M.A.D. Gallery as the perfect platform to showcase our own machines, as well as other pieces of kinetic art by other creators whom we greatly admire,” said Büsser.