MOTOR Covers Featured In Art Exhibition

Motor, Sep 2004 by Nash, Tom

Several beautiful MOTOR Magazine covers from the 1930s are prominently featured in an art exhibit currently on tour at the National Automotive Historical Collection in Detroit.

The art is the work of Arthur Radebaugh, the famed early virtuoso of the airbrush. During his long career as one of the premier industrial artists, Radebaugh designed many covers for MOTOR Magazine from the early Thirties into the Fifties, mostly on the Annual Show Issues. His work also included illustrations for automobile companies, Coca-Cola and other magazines, such as Look, Life and The Saturday Evening Post.

Radebaugh's forte, however, was futuristic art-visionary images that peeked into the decades to come, depicting flying cars and ribbons of highways in the skies surrounding mile-high spires of art deco skyscrapers.

"Radebaugh: The Future We Were Promised" incorporates dozens of his best works over several years. Assembled by Jared Rosenbaum and Rachel Mackow of Philadelphia's Palace of Culture, the exhibit can be viewed online at www.palaceojfculture.org.