Stephen Bayley

Cathedrals on wheels

Stephen Bayley hails the automobile - a miracle of technical and artistic collaboration - and mourns its demise

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issue 18 April 2015

Imagine for a moment Harley Earl, head of design at General Motors, Detroit’s wizard of kitsch. Standing before him, in his studio, is the cetacean bulk, nipple-coloured pink paint, churrigueresque chrome ornaments and rocket-ship details of his 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham Seville Convertible. He is talking to his acolytes, as attentive as Rubens’ studio assistants in Antwerp 300 years earlier.

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