Page 20 - AAA Magazine – AAA Ohio Auto Club – May 2019

Life is a Highway
America’s Love Affair with Cars Revealed
By Mike Brice
Over the years, as motorists started planning for a family road trip or buying a new car, they were more likely to turn to an auto magazine than a museum for information. But even before the automobile became part of our everyday lives with daily commutes, drive-in movies and Route 66 adventures, artists were quick to understand how it would revolutionize our lives in ways we could never predict.
“Life Is a Highway: Art and American Car Culture,”
the first United States exhibition in recent history
to provide a broad, historical overview of this phenomenon, celebrates the rich inventiveness and wide variety of expressive approaches taken by artists throughout the 20th century inspired by the automobile and automobile-related themes.
On view from June 15 to Sept. 15, 2019, at the Toledo Museum of Art, this exhibition will feature approximately 125 works of art in a wide variety of media including painting, sculpture, photography, video, prints and drawings — assembled from TMA’s collection and important loans from public and private collections and art galleries.
“The works in the exhibition were chosen for their originality and insights into how car culture has shaped our notion of American identity,” said Robin Reisenfeld,
Don Eddy – Red Mercedes. 1972. Image Credit: Christopher Ridgway
Ph.D., “Life is a Highway” curator. “As there was an extraordinary amount of superb visual material from which
to choose, it became an embarrassment of riches.”
“Life Is a Highway” also places particular emphasis upon the automobile’s cultural impact on the Midwest, where the
Robin Reisenfeld, Curator
Kerry James Marshall – 7am Sunday Morning. 2003.
John Baeder – Stardust Motel. 1977.
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