There is one other image of this object. See our image rights statement.
Object Timeline
|
1936 |
|
|
1946 |
|
|
2017 |
|
|
2018 |
|
|
2024 |
|
Drawing, Concept Car
This is a Drawing. It was designed by Elwood Engel and from the office of General Motors. It is dated ca. 1941 and we acquired it in 2017. Its medium is brush and gouache on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
This sleek automobile concept drawing by Elwood Engel dates from the beginning of his design career. Before joining General Motors, Engel’s experience designing for the 1939 New York World’s Fair would have guaranteed his exposure to the large Futurama Exhibit mounted at the fair by GM. Focusing on highway progress and GM’s role in creating futuristic vehicles that would use emerging technologies, the display resonates with Engel’s streamlined and futuristic concept. Viewed from above, the automobile is almost unrecognizable as a car—the uniform height of the vehicle’s body and its detailed grills at the sides and back recall elements of contemporary radio designs. Likewise, the female driver navigates the vehicle on a black, pipe-shaped road, possibly suggesting a futuristic highway scheme.
It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Paul Herzan and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
- Book, American Automotive Club of Europe Year-book
- screenprint and letterpress on paper; cover in silver-coated corrugated....
- Gift of George R. Kravis II.
- 2015-41-10
- Book, Your World of Tomorrow
- offset lithograph on paper.
- Smithsonian Libraries, T785.B1 Y58 1939.
- 113.2018.1
![A double-page spread of a booklet with a band of text along the top, below which are black and white industrial photographs of a diorama of a futuristic city viewed from an expansive, aerial perspective. The photographs appear grey-scale with sepia undertones. The fictional landscape in the photograph on the left is centered on a park with a wide, meandering river running through it, viewed diagonally, growing smaller from the bottom left corner upwards. Above the park, in the far distance, the topography of a city is seen in a cluster of skyscrapers and other buildings. Thoroughfares, bridges, and street lanes are visible but not rendered in fine detail. The right photograph appears to be the cityscape found in the background of the left photograph, but rendered in more detail. It illustrates a number of skyscrapers interspersed with low-rise built structures, surrounding a geometric, rectangular park, perhaps Central Park. On either side of the skyscrapers the land appears largely flat, but built on, perhaps with residential housing, interspersed with a few areas of foliage and idle land. The text above the left photograph states [“Through an ingenious system of traffic flow and direction from the various converging roadways, and by means of the ascending and descending ramps, a four-tier approach to the great bridge is formed. There is no interference or cutting in of traffic lanes. Cars may be driven on and off the bridge without risk of collision and with speeds maintained. / “And directly ahead we again see the river city with its four-tier bridge approach. But now we near the great metropolis of 1960. We will bank high over the city for a spectacular view of its many wonders. / “In 1940 this American city actually existed. Its population then was approximately a million per-sons. Today--in 1960--it is much larger, divided]. It continues on the right page [into three units, residential, commercial and industrial. Nine miles out from the city is a vast airport. /'Here is an American city replanned around a highly developed modern traffic system and, even though this is 1960, the system as yet is not complete. Whenever possible the rights of way of these express city thoroughfares have been so routed as to displace outmoded business sections and undesirable slum areas. / “The city of 1960 has abundant sunshine, fresh air, fine green parkways, recreational and civic centers -- all the result of thoughtful planning and design. There are approximately 38,000,000 motorcars in this America of 1960 -- almost a third more than in]. The text is surrounded by a red lined border above and below it on both pages.](https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/345160_cf7df43d9df1900e_n.jpg "Book, Futurama, 1939")
- Book, Futurama, 1939
- offset lithograph on paper.
- Smithsonian Libraries, T785 K1G32 1939.
- 113.2018.2
Our curators have highlighted 1 object that are related to this one.
- Drawing, Concept Car
- color pencil, brush and gouache on paper.
- Museum purchase through gift of Paul Herzan and from General Acquisitions....
- 2017-18-8
Its dimensions are
39.4 × 50.8 cm (15 1/2 in. × 20 in.)
It is signed
Signed in brush and red gouache, lower right: Elwood Engel
Cite this object as
Drawing, Concept Car; Designed by Elwood Engel (American, 1917 - 1986); Office of General Motors; brush and gouache on paper; 39.4 × 50.8 cm (15 1/2 in. × 20 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Paul Herzan and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund; 2017-18-11
