Five years after a car-focused exhibit was canceled due to the pandemic, the St. Louis Art Museum’s “Roaring” exhibit is approaching its July 27 closing date as one of the most popular attractions in the museum’s recent history.
Nearly 70,000 attendees have experienced the exhibit’s collection of automobiles and fashion from France in the years between the world wars. That level of attendance, a museum spokesperson said, hasn’t been reached since 2018’s “Sunken Cities.”
“Roaring” features 12 vintage cars and more than 160 items. Between 1918 and 1939, France experienced a renaissance of art and mechanical innovation that revolved around its flourishing car industry.
“It is oftentimes called the kind of golden age of French car production,” said the exhibit’s curator Genevieve Cortinovis. “We really wanted to introduce this idea of the automobile as a source of artistic inspiration — and also an interesting, new, exciting canvas for artistic expression.”
Some of the exhibit’s cars were entirely custom-built — an example of what Cortinovis called “super elite cars.” In the exhibit, that category is exemplified by the sloping, silver teardrop of a 1938 Talbot-Lago. But mass-produced vehicles were also transformed by French artisans during that period, becoming “coachbuilt cars.”
“If you were wealthy, you could have the opportunity to buy a chassis, which included the engine and the drivetrain from mostly luxury manufacturers,” Cortinovis explained.
“Then you would take that chassis to your preferred coach builder. … They would create essentially a custom body for you. This could take up to 2,000 hours of handwork by artisans, craftspeople working in these different ateliers.”
Cortinovis noted that coachbuilt cars also introduced luxury features designed for comfort, from adjustable seats to glove boxes — “things that we maybe take for granted today.”
To hear the full conversation with “Roaring” curator Genevieve Cortinovis, including the exhibit’s focus on car-inspired French fashion, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The production intern is Darrious Varner. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
