The Art of the Motorcycle

rdf:langString The Art of the Motorcycle

rdf:langString Dbratland/Infobox non-recurring event

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rdf:langString A shiny black Art Deco motorcycle of 1923 with a BMW logo on the gas tank and a boxer twin engine.

rdf:langString A bright red 1910 motorcycle with a flame headlamp, white rubber tires and a four-cylinder engine.

rdf:langString A pristine-looking 1960's-era single-cylinder motorcycle with a blue frame and bright red seat, and a Honda wing logo on the gas tank.

rdf:langString A pristine motorcycle of 1919, painted green with a v-twin engine and footboards.

rdf:langString A pristine 1914 motorcycle with a bright yellow frame, racing style handlebars and skinny racing tires.

rdf:langString Translucent panel reaching floor to ceiling, with image of voluptuous blond woman on a motorcycle in front of chamber with several motorcycles on pedestals.

rdf:langString A pristine-looking, spindly turn-of-the-century style motorcycle with a chain and pedals like a bicycle, and a flame lantern for a headlight. A leather belt delivers power from the engine to the rear wheel.

rdf:langString A long pedestal with undulating top surface, and four motorcycles on it, in front of a giant image on the wall of a man jumping a motorcycle over a tall barb-wire fence.

rdf:langString A giant black and white image on the wall of a voluptuous woman with medium-colored hair sitting on a motorcycle. In the foreground are three motorcycles on pedestals.

rdf:langString The plain white interior balconies spiraling around a rotunda under a huge skylight.

rdf:langString The same rotunda with the balconies covered in mirror-polished stainless steel. There are people walking along galleries, and a burly man with large beard, wearing, a black t-shirt, leans on the railing.

rdf:langString Undulating ramps built in Las Vegas created a lively effect, while in New York the motorcycles followed a sloping, spiral ramp.

rdf:langString Ann-Margret in The Swinger behind 1960 Honda CB92

rdf:langString Steve McQueen in The Great Escape . Motorcycles shown are Britten V1000, Harley-Davidson Sportster, Jackson-Rotax JAP Speedway and Matchless G50

rdf:langString Pamela Anderson in Barb Wire

rdf:langString Roman Holiday behind Honda Super Cub and Vespa GS

rdf:langString motorcycles

rdf:langString Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

rdf:langString Thomas Krens, Charles Falco, Ultan Guilfoyle

rdf:langString US and other industrialized countries.

rdf:langString motorcycles, film, speeches, memorabilia

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rdf:langString Rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in New York, NY . Frank Gehry covered these surfaces with polished stainless steel , creating the feeling of being inside a giant machine, or an engine cylinder.

rdf:langString Text behind the motorcycles offered some context. (Las Vegas exhibit, January 2003)

rdf:langString Film stills were used as backgrounds in the Las Vegas exhibition.

rdf:langString Black Corner Bikes.jpg

rdf:langString Blue Room Bikes 5.jpg

rdf:langString Gug3.jpg

rdf:langString Guggenheim Las Vegas 03.jpg

rdf:langString Guggenheim-New York-interior-20060717.jpg

rdf:langString Honda - The Art of the Motorcycle Las Vegas.jpg

rdf:langString Pam in the Blue Room.jpg

rdf:langString Upstairs.jpg

rdf:langString Vespa and friend.jpg

rdf:langString Guggenheim Las Vegas "Art of the Motorcycle" Panorama 8.jpg

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rdf:langString The Art of the Motorcycle

rdf:langString The Art of the Motorcycle was an exhibition that presented 114 motorcycles chosen for their historic importance or design excellence in a display designed by Frank Gehry in the curved rotunda of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, running for three months in late 1998. The exhibition attracted the largest crowds ever at that museum, and received mixed but positive reviews in the art world, with the exception of some art and social critics who rejected outright the existence of such a show at an institution like the Guggenheim, condemning it for excessive populism, and for being compromised by the financial influence of its sponsors. The unusual move to place motorcycles in the Guggenheim came from director Thomas Krens, himself a motorcycling enthusiast, supported by a novel corporate tie-in with BMW. The motorcycles were chosen by experts including Krens, physicist and motorcycling historian Charles Falco, Guggenheim advisers Ultan Guilfoyle and Manon Slone, and others. The exhibition was described by historian Jeremy Packer as representing the end of a cycle of demonization and social rejection of motorcyclists, followed by acceptance and reintegration that had begun with the mythologized Hollister riot of 1947 and ended with the high-end marketing of motorcycles and the newly fashionable biker image of the 1980s and 1990s. Or at least the show served as "a long-overdue celebration of the sport, the machines and the pioneers they love." The exhibition was the beginning of a new trend in profitable, blockbuster museum exhibits, foreshadowed by The Treasures of Tutankhamun tour of 1972-1979. Questions over the museum's relationship with corporate financial sponsors, both in this show and the tribute to the work of fashion designer Giorgio Armani (on the heels of a $15 million pledge to the museum from Mr. Armani) that followed shortly after, contributed to soul searching and the drafting of new ethical guidelines by the Association of Art Museum Directors.

rdf:langString ( * Later derivative exhibitions licensing the name were put on by Wonders: The Memphis International Cultural Series and the Orlando Museum of Art, and others, using some of the original catalog and a variety of interior designs, but not curated by the Guggenheim.)