August 25, 2018

The Shape of Speed

By roadsrus

This morning Ruth and I went to the Portland Art Museum to see its current show.  Called “The Shape of Speed”, it features 17 cars and 2 motorcycles that are best described as rolling sculptures.  They were lovingly created between 1930 and 1942 and are mostly from either private collections or auto museums.  All of them are rare and beautiful.  This presentation has been created because this museum mounted a wildly successful auto show in 2011 called “The Allure of the Automobile”.

 

The orange vehicle is a 1937 Airomobile.  Only one model was built.  Paul Lewis drove it all over the United States for 45,000 miles trying to stir up interest in its manufacture and failed.

The silver beauty is a Tatra.  They were made in Czechoslovakia.  The humpback, which you can’t see, contains a V-8 engine.  Only 167 of this model were made and the company ceased production in 1939.

The black Delahaye in one of 11 made; 7 survive. This one driven in Algeria was found in 1992.  A collector bought it for about 60 British pounds.

The Bad News.  This exhibit closes on September 16, 2018, and will not travel.   If you happen to be in Portland between now and then, love art deco, and find 1930’s designs like these 3 outstanding, go see it.

The Good News.  You can get on the Portland Art Museum’s website and at least learn something about this sensational show before it closes.  There is a catalogue, so if you’re a serious collector you can probably get one sent to you.  They aren’t expensive and are not available on Amazon.

Hank

About roadsrus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roadsrus
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2018 at 11:38 pm and posted in Oregon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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