Originally Posted by
Otis
The Picasso and Duchamp pieces shown above are art. Bicycles (at least good ones) are craft.
+1 Why should we be embarrassed to call a display of aesthetically pleasing bicycles anything other than what they are are, great examples of industrial design?
A partial list of what I'd include:
American Baroque bikes. The balloon tired bikes from the 30s to the 60s. Not so great to ride, but gorgeous to look at and a reflection of greater trends in society. Kids were being sold a steppingstone into the world of motorcycles, cars, aviation and space travel.
The muscle bikes of the 60s & 70s. Starting with the original Stingray, muscle bikes were pure fantasy. Lots of imaginative designs.
English roadsters and 3 speeds. Classic looking bikes with wonderful attention to detail. Some of the chainwheels are worthy of being hung on the wall by themselves.
Track bikes and real race bikes of the downtube shifter and steel frame era. No other piece of machinery designed to carry a human is as spare and purposeful as these. The minimum is the optimum.
Early safety bikes. In the era before we'd finally settled on the best frame layout, double-diamond, experimentation and differentiation ruled. If all bikes looked the same, why should anyone buy one particular brand? Make it unique.
There are a lot of bikes that are beautiful by themselves. Some French bikes are individual, functional, and lovely to look at. Rene Herse, anyone?
My '84 Univega Super Strada with full Dura Ace AX. Candy red. Still the pertiest bike ever in Merkel-land.