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This is a wonderful moment for collecting design and art. Collector cars are no exception, and they are fetching record prices in public auctions across the globe. In the past two years, auction houses have gradually added new value to automobiles, by removing some historical cars from their departments – those of greatest artistic significance—and integrating these masterpieces in their sales of art and design. This new approach of interpreting cars as examples of great design of its zeitgeist has brought first-time car collectors into this arena. After all, some automobiles have achieved the highest manifestation of modern design, and many great designers have had their hands in car design—Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Raymond Loewy, Marc Newson, Norman Foster, and Mathieu Lehanneur—to name a few.
If you are as interested in the history car design as I am, and if you are looking to see and experience some of the most interesting, handcrafted cars ever produced, then you will be thrilled to learn of a new curatorial platform which will show us New Yorkers the rarest of the rare. Morton Street Partners is located in a historical, charming, brick townhouse with an edge in the West Village.
This art platform was founded by three young, passionate experts who have devoted their careers to this field. Tom Hale, Jake Auerbach, and Benjamin Tarlow were trained at the forefront of the collectible cars market, and have now made their services available to all. In his role as a specialist at Sotheby’s, Auerbach was a member of the team behind the famed record-setting sale of a 1962 Ferrari 250GTO, which fetched $48.4M; Hale, a vintage car connoisseur, was included in the list of ‘40 under 40’ by Sports Car Market Magazine; and Tarlow has overseen the restoration and conversation of rare cars. So, you know that you are in good hands.
What interests them is not the most expensive cars, but those with unique stories and historical significance. Whether it is a one-of-a-kind Ferrari which was thought to be lost and was recently found in a private garage in France; or a car that Ettore Sottsass and Andrea Branzi created in the 70s in accordance with their Radical Design revolution; or a 1969 Citroën Méhari in clear plastic, of which only handful were ever created; one of the only two survicing examples is presented in the inaugural exhibition.
The curatorial program offered by Morton Street Partners is of a type never before seen in New York. They seek to collaborate with curators, galleries, and artists, and to place cars in conversation with art and design. The inaugural exhibition features contemporary art as the backdrop of three cars, one of which is the concept hydrogen-powered, zero-emission Z-Car I, which architect Zaha Hadid famously created, and which was presented in a memorable solo show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2004. I hope to see future exhibitions of art and design on the same level and spirit of the radical cars on exhibition. But this is the first show, and I see a great future for this venture. Congratulations.
