“Come for the Warhols, stay for the cars,” writes the Pulitzer-prize-winning Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight in his unflattering survey of the Petersen Automotive Museum’s new exhibit, “Andy Warhol: Cars—Works from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection.”
Knight continues:
“And I say that knowing that cars are not my area of expertise. I know only one thing about them for certain, and that is that my engineer grandfather designed a magneto for the Ford Model A, which replaced the hugely successful Model T in 1928. End of deep comprehension.”
Or the comprehension is less profound than he thinks.
In its summary of features on the 1928 Ford Model A, “Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942” informs us, “Superseding the old magneto ignition was a contemporary battery and ignition system.”
Maybe Knight’s grandfather designed that. It would have been quite an accomplishment for future generations to boast about.
A friend’s reply via email: “I spent about three minutes in the Warhol space on Tuesday. If you’ve seen one Warhol, you’ve seen them all. The highlight was the Gullwing, and that was it. Not sure why all the fuss.”