The colorful advertising poster is for a sleek aero- car. Fantasy inspired vehicles were commonly used as a marketing tool during the middle of the 20th century to inspire and awe consumers. This poster is made up of several key images. Prominently placed horizontally in the foreground occupying most of the lower segment of the poster is a long missile shaped vehicle, above it and to the right is a large pierced spherical globe which is balanced at the base by two diagonal supports and lastly in the background and slightly to the left is an obscured low-rise building block with an attached slim rectangular tower reaching upward and off the pictorial space. Overall, the aero car has a tapered elongated front, reminiscent of birds’ beak, it appears to be in motion at high speed, pointing toward the left of the frame. The body is a deep red hue with two silver torpedo shaped engines on the underside, one has a bright whitish yellow flame emanating from the rear. An individual dressed in a hat and coat is presented from the waist up behind a transparent curved windshield. Wires are faintly apparent below the vehicle, supported by inverted V-shaped struts with oval openings, giving the illusion of a fanciful horizontal launching platform as the aero-car is poised to take flight. Swirling fog fill the lower half of the dreamlike image, and stylized letters, widely spaced, spell the designer's name, W-O-Z-E-N-A, barely perceptible along the border.

There is one other image of this object. See our image rights statement.

See more objects with the tag presentation drawing, mobility, fiction, futuristic, concept, aerodynamic, car.

Object Timeline

1955	Work on this object began.
2017	We acquired this object. We photographed this object.
2018	We photographed this object. We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Drawing, Concept Car

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Pete Wozena and from the office of General Motors. It is dated 1955 and we acquired it in 2017. Its medium is color pencil, brush and gouache on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

This concept drawing by designer Pete Wozena presents an elaborate automobile aircraft fantasy, a popular 1950s motif in designs for dream cars as well as production models. Dream cars were an important aspect of General Motors' overall presentation--they often featured as showstoppers in the General Motors Motorama, an auto show staged by GM from 1949 to 1961, and the premier stylists at GM were recruited by Head Stylist Harley Earl to create these top-secret designs. Earl described a good car as being a retreat or vacation, and aircraft-emulating automobiles were perhaps the perfect vehicles to foster fantasies of escape. With jets streaming fire at the vehicle's rear, this beautifully rendered concept car design also demonstrates GM's potential to master still unknown technologies.
While Wozena outfits the driver of this vehicle in traditional attire, the futuristic landscape acts a surreal background. The globe-like grid forms and abstract architecture resemble the styling of the "roads of tomorrow" that characterized the futuristic highways in GM's 1956 industrial musical "Design for Dreaming," and it's possible that Wozena's drawing was connected with the project. The swirling fog along the road likens the highway to a runway and suggests that the car might actually be traveling through the air.

It is credited Museum purchase through gift of Paul Herzan and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.

A black and white photo of a satellite adhered to a rectangular piece of metal. A small silver object featuring three orbs with yellow gemstones inserted creating a UFO like object.

Satellite Brooch
aluminum dibond laminated photograph, plastic reflector, glass beads.
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2016-34-42

Print, Construction of the Trylon and Perisphere, 1939 New York World's Fair

Print, Construction of the Trylon and Perisphere, 1939 New York World's Fair
lithograph on cream wove paper.
Gift of Mrs. Hugh Ferriss.
1964-5-10

Drawing, Concept Car
brush and gouache on paper.
Museum purchase through gift of Paul Herzan and from General Acquisitions....
2017-18-11

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Its dimensions are

H x W: 50 × 65.1 cm (19 11/16 × 25 5/8 in.) Mat: 71.1 × 91.4 cm (28 × 36 in.)

It is signed

Signed in white color pencil, lower right: WOZENA

Cite this object as

Drawing, Concept Car; Designed by Pete Wozena (American, 1918–2006); Office of General Motors; color pencil, brush and gouache on paper; H x W: 50 × 65.1 cm (19 11/16 × 25 5/8 in.) Mat: 71.1 × 91.4 cm (28 × 36 in.); Museum purchase through gift of Paul Herzan and from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund; 2017-18-8

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2FYT22/
Accession Number 2017-18-8
Object ID 1108798007