The first large-scale domestic exhibition to provide a historical overview of this topic with an emphasis upon the Midwest, Life Is a Highway will bring together a diverse selection of artists to showcase the automobile’s reshaping of the 20th-century American landscape and cultural attitudes of self-expression. Featuring more than 100 works from the Toledo Museum of Art’s own collection and both private and public loans, this exhibition will chart the rise of automobility as a visual icon of American identity. With works spanning from early depictions through the Pop Artists’ portrayal of the automobile’s impact upon consumer culture to the present, the car’s image as a symbol of newness, freedom and independence, mobility, and renewal will be explored. Organized through four themes that call attention to the social, aesthetic, environmental, and industrial dimensions of its legacy, this exhibition will include a range of visual media. 

Sponsors

Life is a Highway: Art and American Car Culture is presented by BP America with additional support from Taylor Cadillac, the Ohio Arts Council and 2019 Exhibition Program Sponsor ProMedica.