Museum Curations

Transatlantic Style: A Romance Of Fins And Chrome at The Blackhawk Automotive Museum

July 8, 2017

Transatlantic Style Blackhawk

‘Transatlantic Style: A Romance of Fins and Chrome,’ was an exhibition showing the creative storm in automotive design shared between the United States and Italy during the post-World War II period. It was based on Osborne’s book Stile Transatlantico / Transatlantic Style: A Romance of Fins and Chrome that premiered at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in August, 2016 as a spectacular large-format hardcover edition, telling the compelling story of this rich creative exchange, the societal and economic forces that helped to drive it and the personalities that populated it. Donald Osborne wanted to take his study beyond the pages of the volume and into the gallery of the world-respected Blackhawk Automotive Museum in order to offer the public an opportunity to learn and see ‘Transatlantic Style’ in person. With the support of Don Williams, a driving force behind the creation of the Blackhawk Automotive Museum, his carefully-curated exhibition offered to the American public their first-ever opportunity to walk through history, viewing a select gathering of iconic, jet-age cars together in one setting to really understand the impact these cars have had.

“We were extremely pleased to be able to work with Donald on hosting this wonderful exhibition of automotive design, which coincided with the museum’s 30th Anniversary,” said Blackhawk Museum’s Executive Director Tim McGrane. “We welcomed many visitors to the Museum during the three months of the exhibition and we timed it so that automotive enthusiasts attending the Pebble Beach Week of events in August also had the opportunity to visit the Blackhawk Museum.”

Works of motoring art designed and crafted by brilliant designers and coachbuilders, including Harley Earl for General Motors, Virgil Exner for Chrysler, Giovanni Savonuzzi and Gian Paolo Boano for Ghia, Battista Farina for Pinin Farina and Frank Spring for Touring, were featured in the exhibition. As the author and curator points out, these designers shared ideas and inspired each others’ future works during this fertile period of post-war growth, thus shaping the whole of automotive design between the United States and Italy, impacting history, commerce and the world as a whole.

The exhibition featured a number of significant collector cars on display, including the:

  • Buick Y-Job
  • Le Sabre
  • Cisitalia 202 MM Aerodinamica
  • Cisitalia 202 SC Coupe
  • Lancia Aurelia B20 Coupe
  • Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint
  • Nash-Healey Roadster
  • Plymouth Belmont
  • Chrysler GS-1 Coupe
  • Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Ghia Coupe
  • Hudson Italia
  • Lancia Aurelia B24 Spider America
  • Ghia Streamline X ‘Gilda’
  • Chrysler 300F Convertible
  • Lancia Flaminia Pinin Farina Coupe
  • Maserati 5000GT Touring Coupe
  • Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Pinin Farina