Exhibition catalogue, published April 2025
Awarded the Motorworld Special Book Prize 2025
This catalogue explores the role of the automobile as both object and subject in France between the two world wars, a period of exceptional creativity, innovation, and turbulence. It untangles the impact of fashion, interiors, architecture, aviation, and the avant-garde on French automobile design and production. In turn, it highlights the bold, untethered visions of artists like Josephine Baker, Le Corbusier, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, and Jacques-Henri Lartigue who embraced the automobile as a provocative expression of the modern age. Expansive and interdisciplinary, Roaring illuminates the rich creative ecosystems that nourished this golden age of French automotive design.
Authors: Sarah Berg, Genevieve Cortinovis, Pierre-Jean Desemerie, Ken Gross, Justice Henderson, and Daniel Marcus
Details: 208 pages, approx. 260 color illustrations; 10 × 11.4 inches, hardcover. Published by Saint Louis Art Museum. Production and design by Hirmer Publishers
Tamara de Lempicka, "Self-Portrait,“ Tamara in the Green Bugatti (detail), 1929; Private Collection, Switzerland © 2025 Tamara de Lempicka Estate, LLC, Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris, image: Art Resource, New York
