Newport Car Museum – Rhode Island

The Newport Car Museum opened in 2017 in a former missile manufacturing facility .

The museum its a showroom, there was a real design in the layout and the lighting. What was very interesting to me is that between the vehicles there is an eclectic Mid-Century furnishings, famous and iconic furniture was all over the place.

“Ox Chair” by Hans J. Wegner 1960, the form comes from surrealist paintings as well the work of Pablo Picasso.

“La Chaise” by Charles and Ray Eames 1948.  This lounge chair was designed for the 1947 International Competition  of Post War Low-Cost Furniture Design. It was inspired by the sculpture “Floating Figure”by Gaston Lachaise.

The “Twist Cube”by Frank Gehry , was design as a seating for an art happening in Paris in 1989

Ben who is much much knowledgeable in all car related areas, was interested in this car….. I was more interested in the bench in front of the random yellow car.

Salvador Dali designed the original ” Bocca Sofa” in 1936. However this version named “Marilyn Bocca Sofa” was designed in 1972 by Studio 65, its based on the lips of Marilyn Monroe and as a tribute to Dali.

One of my favorite cars was this little egg submarine looking vehicle.

The famous “Egg Chair” by Arne Jacobsen designed the chair for the Lobby of the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1958. The shape of the chair has become the icon of Danish furniture.

Pierre Poulin 1970 “Groovy Chair”. The interesting thing about this chair is the author, he was an automotive designer who invented the mechanical retractable hardtop.

The electric car area….

Below the Flow Bench by Arktura , its made from fiberglass and automative lacquer, its a current design.

The famous and fun 1963 “Ball Chair” by Aero Aarnio, it was shown for the first time at The Cologne Furniture Fair.

The 1969 “Up Chair” was design by artist Gaetano Pesce. The chair with its female form is “Shackled” to a ball shaped ottoman.

Below we have Ben next to his favorite car, besides the esthetic I imagine there are alot of features… specially if the car is close to half a million dollar.

Personally my favorites were the red egg car and this brush aluminum car.

Those two cars look very much alike. I am pretty sure the finish  from the car above is what I like (maybe it’s not even aluminum)

 

The Museum is a pretty interesting place even if you don’t know much about cars. The facility has this art museum feeling which is very nice if you want to look at each piece as more than just a vehicle.

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