Calder, Koons, Picasso...Ford?

Can a car be art? The curators of two new exhibitions on the topic, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Detroit Institute of Arts, don’t make that claim. But cars were arguably the most iconic objects of the 20th century, and their designs can certainly be brilliant. The best go far beyond a pretty shape, or an intelligent packaging of mechanical components, to reflect and even represent the culture around them. Think of the tail fin and how it became easy visual shorthand for ’50s America.

So cars are certainly appropriate subject matter for major exhibitions, and it’s a pleasing coincidence for enthusiasts that two are slated to open this year. , now scheduled for November at the DIA, is, perhaps surprisingly for the city’s biggest museum, the first to address the