IMAGINE - AUTOMOBILE CONCEPT ART FROM THE 1930s TO THE 1980s

The golden age of American automobile design is universally considered to be from the 1940s to the early 1970s, an innovative period for the country’s automobile manufacturers and for the artists who designed and styled the cars of the future. The goal was to sell more cars primarily by employing artists to create vehicles with ‘eye appeal’ for the buying public. There were many thousands of drawings of these futuristic models, but almost all have been lost or purposely destroyed by the manufacturers to minimize copying. The eye-catching images shown in this book have been gathered together over the last 15 years and now form part of The Kelley Collection. They are rare survivors and illustrate the work of the men and woman who drew and designed the cars from their early days at art school and during their employment with the ‘Big Three’ automobile manufacturers. These artists have been almost forgotten and this book honors them for their contributions and imagination. The reader is taken back to earlier times when the sky was the limit, dreams and vision were encouraged and restrictions were few.