On
26 June, 1998 The
Guggenheim Museum opened the show
entitled "The Art of the Motorcycle". The
objectives of the
show were to
display a selection of
bikes exemplifying the
significant designs over
the roughly
100 year history of
motorcycling. The show has
since traveled to the Field Museum in Chicago, the
Guggenheim Bilbao and
to
Las Vegas.
This show was (is) unique by several measures. The curatorial objective
brought an array of bikes of a quality which had certainly never before been approached. This of course
is due to the combination of resources possible at a major museum, and the
curatorial excellence and discipline of the event staff (who were in fact
still selecting and transporting machines in the week prior to the opening).
In achieving the objective of displaying machines which represented both
unique and historically important steps in the evolution of motorcycling, the
exhibit collected approximately 100 bikes. These were largely composed of
bikes which were (or are) actively ridden, rather than only concours specimens. Several of the bikes displayed are machines
still ridden in vintage racing.
The Guggenheim Museum, situated off Central Park in New York City uses
a display space which is an open spiral. Upon entry to the museum, visitors
were confronted with an F4, an amazing four cylinder superbike by
MV Augusta. The exhibit proceeded in chronological order from the ground
floor (which aside from the aforementioned F4, consisted exclusively of
late 19th century machines.
Winding up through the first 3 floors, took visitors from 1900 through the
1930-40's including bikes which were effectively bicycles with motors (one
such was a 4-cylinder Harley Davidson and much larger machines such as the
Brough Superior (the preferred ride of T.E. Lawrence). This group
included impressive design innovation, such as the French Megola, which
mounted the radial engine in the front wheel, revolving the cylinders
about a stationary crankshaft. The motorcycles of this era mostly featured
manual lubrication and rudimentary controls.
The sections dedicated to the following decades, the 1940-50's featured both
amazing design innovations, such as the classic Vincent Black Shadow (as
well as an Elgin Vincent, a bronze and nickel plate beauty which was
added too late to the show to appear in the exhibit's book). Naturally, this
section also included many bikes of the WWII and post war eras, including
the well known Harley and BMW military bikes. Possibly the best example
in this array was the Norton Manx. The displayed bike is still raced (and
featured some modifications to keep oil from its open valve actuation off
of modern racetracks.
The 1960-80's saw wide adoption of motorcycles both in counterculture and
in an increasingly affluent economy which (first in the US, then elsewhere)
allowed for a wider use of motorcycles as recreation or sport. The
exhibit's display demonstrated this, including a replica of the chopper
featured in Easy Rider and an array of bikes from Honda (including the
original Goldwing), Norton, Triumph, Ducati (a 1975 750 SS),
Kawasaki and many
others. The bikes on display included the early supersports as well as
cruisers, cafe racers and hooligan bikes.
The show concluded on the 7th floor with an array of ultra modern and mostly
high-tech equipment. Included are a minimal trials bike (used for stunt-like
riding, competing to ascend near-vertical rock formations), a modern
scooter and 916 and Monster bikes from Ducati. Also included are
works of art from Aprillia and Bimota and the custom (fewer than 10 in
existence) Britten V1000; bikes which radically changed many notions of the
design of racing mechanics and have easily won nearly every race in which
they've run.
Perhaps in part because of the novelty, and clearly also due to the wide
appeal of the subject matter, the Art of the Motorcycle show drew more
visitors than any other event the Guggenheim has run.
The show's curators included Charles Falco, a professor of solid state
phisics and Ultan Guilfoyle a staff member of the Guggenheim, both riders
and collectors of british motorcycles. The show was sponsored by BMW,
which loaned only a small number of exquisite machines to be displayed. The
larges single contributor of bikes was the Birmingham (Alabama) Museum of Art.
References:
The art of the Motorcycle ©Guggenheim Foundation
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