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Automotive Developments

One can see automobiles in both the visual and the literary arts throughout the 20th century. Cars have often played a key major role in literature, i.e. novels and plays. And the automotive developments that have come have even been used as an expression and commentary on the state of humanity. Because of automotive developments Carl Sandburg wrote "Portrait of A Motorcar" in 1918, and almost twenty years later, made the automobile the center of his long prose poem

In 1919, also due to the automotive developments in America, Sinclair Lewis wrote whimsically of his beloved adventures in a Henry Ford Model T. The inspiration by automotive developments continued and, six years later, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his masterpiece, "The Great Gatsby," which portrays the cynicism of post-World War I and a key to this theme is accentuated by the use of Gatsby's cream-colored Rolls-Royce, which would not exist if not for automotive developments. In 1962, William Faulkner wrote humorously on the topic of human frailties, and because of the automotive developments in society, he wrote on this topic against the backdrop of an early Winton Flyer automobile in his literary classic, "The Reivers."

There are some poets and novelists who were drawn to the car culture because of the rising automotive developments. However, other poets and novelists were depressed by automotive development and wrote poems and prose that reflected such ideas as the colonial “Machine in the Garden” theory. Either way, the automobile was the hub of human commentary for a long list of writers, due to the continuous rise of automotive development.

Even more than writers, composers of popular music are attracted to automotive developments. The music jumped right in almost as soon as the first car drove past and music continues to provide commentary on popular culture and the automotive developments.

Many such songs are sexually oriented. The titles of these songs inspired by automotive developments include "In My Merry Oldsmobile," "On The Back Seat of A Henry Ford," "Tumble in A Rumble Seat," "Keep Away from The Fellow Who Owns an Automobile," up to the contemporary songs such as "Maybelline," "Mustang Sally," "Little Deuce Coupe," "Pull up to The Bumper," and "Little Red Corvette." Trucking songs, such as "King of The Road," "On the Road Again," and many others. The examples of the influence of automotive developments in music are too numerous to mention here, but are immensely popular.

Quite certainly due to automotive developments over the past century, Los Angeles Music Center and Museum of Contemporary Art has commissioned several playwrights to create original ten-minute scripts to be acted out in automobiles.

The film industry has also relied heavily on automotive developments, using cars in key scenes in their films ranging from the humorous "The Long, Long Trailer" and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" to "Bonnie and Clyde", to more contemporary movies like “Crash” and “Sideways”—not to mention the hundreds of chase scenes you will find in a gazillion action movies.

Television series like “Cops” are very popular—often because of the dramatic chase scenes. Artists have followed Toulouse-Lautrec's lead from his 1896 lithograph, "The Motorist," to take up brushes and portray the essence of the automobile as automotive developments continue.

Some artists use their brushes in cartoon fashion to show the automobile as a toy of the idle rich. Other artists see the automobile and automotive development as a symbol of mankind's dynamism and vitality.

Andy Warhol, who saw art in a Campbell soup can, painted a spectacular series devoted to gruesome car wrecks. On the other hand, there are artists who see the automobile as a graceful, flowing form of man-made beauty, an art in itself, and automotive developments as only a furthering of that beauty.