A True Piece of Art

On Tuesday, Aug. 28, 1951 the art world ran heard on into the world of automobiles. That day, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibit called Eight Automobiles and validated cars as works of art.

According to the press release that was sent out prior to the opening, the museum stated, "All the automobiles were selected for their excellence as works of art and for their relevance to contemporary problems of passenger car design."

MoMA was the very first museum in the world to collect and display automobiles as examples of excellence in design. The very first car acquired by the museum was a 1946 Cisitalia 202. That actual car was recently put on display at the 10th Annual Keenland Concours d'Elegance.

Cisitalia was formed in Turin, Italy in 1946 as a sports and racing company by industrialist Piero Dusio. The first car, rolled out that year, was the D46 which was basically cobbled together with cast off parts from Fiat. The car wasn't exactly what Dusio wanted but that didn't really matter because it was soon winning races.

For the next venture, Dusio approached some of Europe's top designers and game them a chassis on which to design an aluminum body. One of those approached was famed Italian designer Battista "Pinin" Farina who would design many of the most famous and beautiful Ferrari and Alpha Romeo cars ever made.

The car Pininfarina (which is how he would sign his name and to which he eventually had it legally changed) designed for Dusio was the 202GT. This gran torismo was greeted by the automotive press with huge accolades. It was referred to as a "rolling sculpture."

While the media was agog over the car it showed it's ability as being functional as well with Cisitalia taking three of the top four places at the 1947 Mille Miglia. The problem was that, because it was a coachbuilt racer, it was expensive. A new 202GT cost over $6000 in a post World War II economy that had yet to fully recover. For that reason only 170 were ever manufactured.

Over the next few years a couple of other 202 models were built and raced. All scored well on the track but no model saw more than 200 roll out of the shop. In fact, the entire run of Cisitalia cars was fewer than 400.

Despite the success on the track, the cost of creating these fabulous cars soon became too much of a burden and Cisitalia closed its doors in 1952. The designers who were responsible went on to other Italian firms and gained additional fame in their racing divisions.

Perhaps the biggest legacy of the Cisitalia is that it demonstrated to the world that a car could be considered art. In fact, for a while in New York City a Cisitalia 202 was on display under the same roof as the likes of Van Gogh's A Starry Night and works by the likes of Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, Rodin, and many other of the most famed artists of all time.