Driving Forces: American Art and the Automobile

Featuring more than 80 artworks by artists including Benny Andrews, Thomas Hart Benton, Stuart Davis, Richard Estes, Janet Fish, Jacob Lawrence, Doris Lee and Wayne Thiebaud, Driving Forces: American Art and the Automobile showcases a range of American art styles from social realism and scene painting to photorealism and pop art. These works showcase how artists have portrayed the car as a defining cultural symbol and transformative social force in the United States.​​

The impetus for this exhibition is the recent gift to PEM of more than 40 objects from the collection of Terry and Eva Herndon, including paintings, works on paper and sculpture. The exhibition will feature works from the Herndons’ gift in conversation with other car-related art from PEM’s collection, including sculpture, photographs, decorative arts, fashion and multimedia artworks.

Encompassing more than a century of American art and experience shaped by the car, Driving Forces delves into themes of rural and urban life, cars and the environment and migration and displacement. The exhibition examines the idea of mobility and notions of leisure and freedom, and the impact of technological change, illuminating new perspectives on the transformational role of the car in American culture and the importance of cars as a source of inspiration to American artists.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image:  Maurice Freedman, Road to Stockton, 1952. Oil on canvas. Gift of Terry and Eva Herndon. 2025.30.19. Peabody Essex Museum. © Maurice Freedman. Image courtesy of the Fitchburg Art Museum. Photo by Tim Barrett.