Harley Earl Photo Exhibit
In 1997, Richard worked with Knoll to create this exhibit and did a talk, click above, at the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, MI.
Chrysler Headquarters
As a powerful advocate of women's rights, Harley created the first prominent all-female design team in the business world -- it was groundbreaking, controversial, and extremely successful.
After Cranbrook, Richard Earl teamed up with Big-Three auto maker Chrysler to have the photo exhibit (pictures at left) displayed within the company’s brand new world headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mi. during the Fall of 1997.
GM Design Center
Then the Automotive Hollywood: A Tribute to Harley J. Earl exhibit traveled to:
Design Center of General Motors Tech Center in Warren, Mi.
The Art Center of Kettering University in Flint, Mi.
Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mi.
The Cranbrook exhibit was the first time Harley's modern works of art were collectively displayed inside a museum. Designed to appeal to modern audiences, this exhibit truly enlivens a bygone era of grace, style and national pride. Porsche designer Harm Lagaay and Richard Earl at the inagural 1997 event with the one-and-only Le Sabre under the beautiful peristyle.
A refreshed version of “Automotive Hollywood" then traveled to SoCal’s inland empire at the Temecula Valley Museum in April, 2013. Local media testimonials:
Flickr photo stream of the exhibit being displayed in 2011 at West Palm Beach, Florida’s Waterfront Pavilion.
Flickr photo stream at Waterfront Pavillion
2005 Automotive Hall of Fame testimonial, "Grandson Richard Earl, who has spent much of the last decade bringing the memory and accomplishments of Harley Earl to the forefront, created the display. He says an appreciation of the underlying strengths of the automotive industry as it is today requires an equal appreciation of the historical reality."
Richard continues, "To fully appreciate the depth and breadth of the American automotive industry, and in particular how important design has been and continues to be in Detroit - the birthplace of automotive design - we need to see and understand how history has unfolded, that's what 'Automotive Hollywood' is all about." More: Auto Hall of Fame press release.
