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Today they call them Art Cars, but back in the chaotic 1960's they didn't
call them anything because there wasn't any to begin with, and like most new art forms with out a fancy catch phrase label or category, they are simply considered an oddity and passed by, which often happens when it's not something cooked up by either the galleries or the museums, or until such a time that either the new art form becomes a social phenomenon that simply can't be ignored any longer, or until the armchair experts have properly dissected, weighed and measured it, taken credit for it, put in to historical perspective,
pidgin holed, labeled and finally, cashed in on it. Painting on cars is nothing new, car painting has it's roots in the ornamental design of carriage making, that in turn has a history that dates back to dawn of history. But a car is not a carriage, and flames and pen striping or a few flowers and a peace sign painted on for decoration do not make an Art Car. What constitutes an Art Car, according to Art Car pioneer,
Kent Bash, is that a significant, distinct, or profound step has been taken to transform a car in to a work of art.
In the 1950s , television was new, T.V. programming and T.V. commercials began to broadcast a view of America that didn't really exist, happy housewives dancing about the kitchen with all the new appliances that makes house work and raising kids a blissful joy, and Images of the equally happy husbands heading off to work with spring in their step and smiles on their faces. But these Images of happiness in Leave-It-to-Beaverville began to get some
wormy little holes punched in it with such landmark books as Sloan Wilson's 1955 novel The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit. The book became a symbol of what was and is wrong with American Business, Stodgy, blind obedience to executive authority, conformity, Lack of real creativity, Betty Friedan's 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, Which popped the bubble of the female roll in this plastic daydream, and of coarse the book that gave us the Beat generation Jack Kerouac's
On The Road, which spelled relief and a way out, all became the fodder of the 1960's.The 1960's started out quiet enough, but the influence was now part of the recipe and as the decade unfolded, the Beatles invaded America with a new sound that inspired a music and social revolution, President Kennedy was assassinated, our involvement in Vietnam was growing and the volatile civil rights movement was about explode. The turbulent times brought about a new consciousness, a lets get back to nature, down with
materialism, anti-big business, anti-war, save the environment and equal rights, and women's liberation. This was the social boiling cauldron and back drop that gave birth to the art car.
In 1962, Kent Bash organized his high schools first student art show. The show was barely underway, when he arrived to find three of his teachers censoring his work, defacing it, by painting over anything that seemed questionable rather than simply taking down the display. Bash flipped out, and began yelling at them, for destroying his work, not respecting his
efforts, and for not using any common sense. The experience was the seed of the Mobile Art Project and Bash became obsessed with the Idea of creating a work of art that
could be displayed in public without being subject to censorship. Bash was a car nut even back in high school, his love affair with automobiles is what put him on the road to becoming an artist. In that same year, 1962 a guy at the corner gas station ask him if he would be interested in trading his 55 Buick for his 1957 V.W. Bug.
Bash turned down the offer, but the shape of the ugly car stuck in his mind and became the subject of numerous drawings, until an Idea hit him, Bash had already hand painted a few guitars, a motorcycle, some cork panels and even some roofing shingles glued on plywood, so the Idea of painting on something other than canvas was not exactly a new one. He began to divide one of his bug drawings into panels, a bug could be the perfect vehicle to test himself and to put his idea in motion. V.W. Bug's are ugly so it would be no great loss If he screwed one up, painting it. Bash traded his 1949 Ford Woodie for a 1958 V.W. Bug in 1963 and his Mobile Art project began.
Bash wanted to be an artist very bad, but didn't know if he had what it would take to become one, so the painting you could drive Idea became symbolic to him on a number of levels. He wondered if he had enough courage to become an artist?, and he thought this project would put him to the test, he considered himself imprisoned by an adult world gone mad, his parents split up when Bash was twelve. His parents fought with each other through the children. He lived with one parent and then the other.
Bash ran away from home when he was thirteen, and got a job in a diner called The Burger Bar. he maid it for a few months until he tried to register for school, then he was picked up by the juvenile authorities and was given a choice, go back home, or go to juvenile hall. Bash ran away from home dozens of times and was not living at home when he graduated from high school. Bash had a real problem with authority, causing problems at home and school, It's not that he was a bad kid, but he didn't like being bullied by adults who abused their authority. Bash's Mobile Art Project represented his voice crying out to be free, his anger was turned in to
energy, the energy that fueled the first couple of Art Cars. His intention was not to start some kind of movement, but to be able to do at least one thing with out adult interference. Bash's first art car caused parents to panic. People were shocked by it, they called it "Sacrilegious" as though some sacred religious Icon had been desecrated. The fact is it
wouldn't have really mattered what the subject matter was, just violating a car with a paint job other than car like, was an outrage all by itself. The painting took about five thousand hours and from the moment it rolled out of the drive way and into the street, Bash had trouble.
The Mobile Art Car racked up eighty tickets in the first year, with only one conviction. The local police seemed to think Bash was some kind of cop killer, drug dealer, hippy- nonconformist, Individualist, anti-war monger, so consequently, he was stopped, searched and generally harassed by just about every cop on the beat. Bash's dilemma
grew more complex after graduation, because now he had to sweat the draft. Bash went to college, to avoid the draft, and worked fulltime. His world now had more authority figures than ever. He finally snapped, and exploded at one of his art teachers and quit college, only to get drafted a few months later. Bash thought he would probably be dead before he would ever be able to make a decision concerning his own life.
To Bash, the adult world looked grim, and frankly, It offered little hope. The Art Car project offered an
escape, from a world filled with to many adults telling you, what to do, where to go, what to
believe in, how to think, and which interest are worth pursuing. Retrospectively, The Art Cars were his coming of age project. Through the Art Cars, Bash gained a larger view of the world, adding to his perception and to his developing capabilities. Bash began to realize that his life was little more than a piece currency that the government was more than willing to spend, with little regard.
In 1965 when I was traveling Europe, I kept an eye open for news from home. The European news networks were obsessed with the social upheaval back in the states, the nightly news always seemed to be flooded with news about the Civil Rights movement, Anti War protest, and Rock Festivals. It was in this context that I first saw Kent Bash and his Art Cars. The Europeans flipped out over them, because they were so American and because they had never seen anything like it. The thing that interested them most was the idea of using a car as a platform for art, and the fact that the art work was so way out. These cars were not like the art cars of today, with stuff glued all over them. Although there were some dimensional aspects to these art
cars, they were for the most part, rolling canvases, that reflected the explosive from which they came. Bash was not trying to create a movement, but with the advent of the Bash Art Cars a major first step was taken in transforming a mere car into a platform for expression. He created six Art Cars from 1963 to 1971, and I believe with out the ground breaking Art Cars of Kent Bash we wouldn't have a modern Art Car movement.
Mark Delecain Copyright 1975
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