Rolling Sculpture comes to the North Carolina Museum of Art

1931 Ruxton Sedan, in Joseph Urban livery, from the Richard H. Driehaus Collection at Chicago Vintage Motor Carriage. Photos by Peter Harholdt, unless otherwise noted.

Sometimes, the line between art and automobile becomes blurred, as recent Ken Gross-curated exhibits at Nashville’s Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston have demonstrated. Opening in October at the North Carolina Museum of Art, a new exhibit, also curated by Gross, will celebrate Rolling Sculpture: Art Deco Cars from the 1930s and ’40s, embracing the themes of Art Deco, Streamlining and Yesterday’s Car of the Future.

1941 Indian 441 Series 4-Cylinder motorcycle, from the collection of Duane Van Fleet. 

Fourteen cars will be displayed in total, including a 1931 Ruxton Sedan, a 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow, a 1934 Packard Twelve Model 1106, the 1934 Ford Model 40 Speedster designed for Edsel Ford, a 1935 Bugatti Type 57S Aerolithe, a 1935 Chrysler Imperial Model C-2 Airflow, a 1936 Voisine C28 Clairere, a 1936 Stout Scarab, a 1936 Peugeot Darl’Mat Coupe, a 1937 Delahaye 135MS Figoni Roadster, a 1938 Talbot-Lago T-150C-SS Teardrop Coupe, a 1938 Hispano-Suiza H6B Xenia, a 1940 Tatra T87, and the 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt concept. Three motorcycles will be shown as well, including a 1930 Henderson KJ Streamliner, a 1934 BMW R7 concept (crated in 1935 and rediscovered 70 years later), and a 1941 Indian Series 441.

Of the cars to be shown, perhaps none exemplifies the Art Deco movement better than the 1931 Ruxton Sedan, featuring a distinctive “rainbow” livery created by industrial designer (and Art Deco pioneer) Joseph Urban. One of 19 surviving Ruxtons, just five are finished in the Urban design, meant to exaggerate the car’s length, and hence, its grandeur. With details like Woodlite headlamps. Moire silk window shades and silk-wrapped passenger assist handles, the Ruxton could have been among the premier luxury cars of its day, had the company survived the effects of the Great Depression and the ambitions of its founder.

The Ruxton story is as fascinating as the car itself is beautiful. The brainchild of engineer William Muller, an employee of the Budd Body Company of Philadelphia, the Ruxton was designed from the onset to feature front wheel drive. Muller’s designs for this predate the Cord L-29, though the latter was officially the first American front-wheel drive car to hit the market.

While Muller worked on designing a drivetrain and chassis for the then-unnamed car, Joseph Ledwinka, cousin to Tatra designer Hans Ledwinka, penned the shape of the Budd-built sedan body. The resulting prototype, completed in 1928, was remarkable not only for its bold engineering, but also for its low overall height of just 53-inches, over a foot and a half shorter than the average car of the day. Ledwinka opted to delete the then-common running boards as well, further enhancing the car’s long and low appearance.

When the prototype failed to produce interest among automakers, Budd board member Archie Andrews founded New Era Motors, with Muller appointed as the startup company’s vice president. Hoping to gain favor with wealthy stockbroker William V.C. Ruxton, Andrews boldly named the car the “Ruxton,” a move that would ultimately result in litigation when Ruxton the financier refused to back the project.

Understanding its limitations early on, New Era enlisted the help of several established companies to supply parts or services in building the Ruxton. Inline eight-cylinder engines would be supplied by Continental, while transmissions would be supplied by Kissel (which would also assemble the driveline). The Moon Motor Company of St. Louis would join the Budd-built sedan bodies (or roadster or phaeton bodies supplied by Baker-Raulang) to the chassis, completing much of the car’s final assembly.

On paper, it seemed like a sensible workflow, but Andrews soon grew impatient with Moon’s progress, enacting a hostile takeover of the company’s stock. Despite the distraction of multiple lawsuits (including one from Ruxton for using his name without permission) the Ruxton automobile entered production in June of 1930, while the country was firmly in the grip of the Great Depression. Moon, suffering from its battle with Andrews and a downturn in customer business, soon proved unable to fulfill its obligations to build Ruxtons, so Andrews turned to Kissel to pick up the slack.

Wanting to avoid the same scenario he’d experienced with Moon, Andrews went on the offensive with Kissel almost immediately. Soon after the contract was penned for Kissel to build entire Ruxton automobiles instead of just drivelines, Andrews immediately began buying Kissel stock in another takeover attempt. Instead of resisting, the Kissel Brothers opted for a scorched earth policy, filing for receivership in November 1930. Five months after production of the Ruxton had begun, it ended abruptly with Kissel’s bankruptcy.

Except that Ruxton’s final chapter had yet to be written. With ample parts left on hand with both Moon and Kissel, creditors believed that complete cars would deliver more of a return than spare parts, so production was restarted. It isn’t clear when the final Ruxton was assembled, but the sedan to be shown in North Carolina is believed to be the penultimate example to leave the factory, along with the last model sold.

Rolling Sculpture will run from October 1, 2016 through January 15, 2017 at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. For more information, visit NCArtMuseum.org.

Gallery – Rolling Sculpture : Art Deco Cars from the 1930s and ‘40s.

1935 Bugatti Aérolithe, courtesy of Chris Ohrstrom. Photo by Joe Wiecha.

 

1934 BMW R7 Concept Motorcycle, BMW Classic Collection. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1935 Chrysler Imperial Model C-2 Airflow, collection of John and Lynn Heimerl. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt, collection of Roger Willbanks. Photo by Michael Furman.

 

1937 Delahaye 135MS Figoni Roadster, collection of Margie and Robert E. Petersen. Photo by Scott Williamson, Photodesign Studios.

 

Edsel Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Speedster, courtesy of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1930 Henderson KJ Streamline, collection of Frank Westfall, Ner­A-Car Museum, Syracuse, N.Y. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1938 Hispano-Suiza H6B “Xenia,” collection of Peter Mullin Automotive Museum Foundation. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1934 Packard Twelve Model 1106, collection of Bob, Sandy, and Gary Bahre. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1936 Peugeot 402 Darl’Mat Coupe, Jim Patterson/Patterson Collection. Photo by Michael Furman.

 

1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow, The Richard H. Driehaus Collection at Chicago Vintage Motor Carriage. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1936 Stout Scarab, collection of Ron Schneider. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1938 Talbot-Lago T-150C-SS Teardrop Coupe, collection of J. W. Marriott, Jr. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1940 Tatra T87, courtesy of Chris Ohrstrom. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

 

1936 Voisin C28 Clairière, collection of Peter and Merle Mullin. Photo by Michael Furman.

 

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