The Motor & Art exhibition focuses on artworks with a motoring theme from the early 20th century to the late 1950s. It features 50 exhibits – paintings, prints, sculptures with motoring motifs, posters, enamel signs, fuel dispensers, oil cans, and brochures for passenger cars and motorcycles. The display is an unconventional gallery exhibition, as it is complemented by other period artifacts. It also includes a 1931 AERO 500 car and several motorcycles from the years 1902–1960, which help to create a vivid period context.

The most exclusive highlight of the exhibition is the unique Laurin & Klement motorcycle from 1902, of which only a few examples remain worldwide.

The exhibition project aims to draw attention to the now overlooked role of motor vehicles in visual art. The main criterion for selecting the works was the motif of motoring. In the early 20th century, cars and motorcycles became a completely unique phenomenon that, in some cases, transcended the boundaries of mere technology. Many artists were able to creatively interpret and process this new element in society.

The exhibition presents artworks by Kamil Lhoták, Vilém Kreibich, Otakar Švec, Antonín Procházka, Josef Váchal, Zdeněk Burian, and Bedřich Stefan.

This is not the first time attention has been drawn to the very thin line between the beginnings of motoring and visual art. With a bit of exaggeration, one could say that without the active contribution of visual artists, cars and motorcycles would not be what they are today.

Especially in the first half of the 20th century, motor vehicles often served as a kind of mobile artwork in public space. Already in 1924, Karel Teige asked whether a car could be considered a work of art. Similarly, Josef Čapek wrote in his book The Art of Primitive Peoples that a machine's purposeful form contains its own elegance.

A remarkable figure of the Czech art scene closely linked to motoring was the painter Vilém Kreibich, who frequently depicted racing cars. In the 1930s, he even collaborated with the Škoda Works on the design of steam locomotives.

Jan Kudrna

Curator: Jan Kudrna