I’ve been searching high and low for the artist of this piece. Anyone know who did it?Motor racing of every flavor has a rich tradition of inspiring artists but there seems to be something in particular about cycle racing that leads artists towards beautiful narratives.
Perhaps it’s simply because a motorcyclist’s body is exposed: Think of a cycle racer aggressively leaning into a turn, shoulders set, head leading the body, the tension between action and balance. It immediately evokes a mood, an attitude; the form just lends itself to storytelling. Even if we’re not trying to tell a story, the orientation conjures one in our minds.
Automotive artists may feel compelled to exaggerate the driving position of the pilot to help convey that mood. But with the cycle racer, the motorcyclist is so much a part of the form of the racing machine that the artist can naturally, or even unintentionally, combine them.
Either way, there’s so much absolute brilliance in these comic-like ligne claire illustrations that it both makes me want to hit the track and pick up the brush.
See the enormous collection of art pieces, advertising, and illustration in BullitMcQueen’s Flickr set.
0 replies on “Evocative Classic Cycle Illustration”
All that kinetic energy frozen in a sliver of time makes the tension palpable. you can almost hear the screaming engines and taste the bugs in your teeth.
Having spent my college years in the early-mid ’80s, I watched a lot of MTV back then. I now see where A-Ha got the inspiration for their best-known (hell, only) video, Take On Me.
I don’t know but those factory racer BMW cylinders hanging in the breeze are a work of art themselves.