June Issue 2001
Waterworks Gallery in Salisbury, NC, Features Works on NASCAR
As the first officially licensed NASCAR artist, Sam Bass creates art for and about life in the fast lane. An exhibition of his work, NASCAR STYLE: The Motorsports Art of Sam Bass will be on view at Waterworks Visual Arts Center in Salisbury, NC, through Sept. 2.
With a background in fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University, Bass combines formal technical skills, an eye for popular culture, the demands of commercial illustration, and a vested love of racing to create a signature look which has come to define NASCAR style. He designs for a sports industry phenomena once considered regional but now embracing a national audience encompassing American cultural icons and high stakes marketing competition.
During the 1960s, pop artist Andy Warhol garnered new respect for symbols of American mass culture when he immortalized the Campbell Soup can, a consumer item packaged for the public. While professional sports have all adapted extravagant use of commercial symbols or logos, racing does so with unabashed exuberance. Bass' graphic sense is perhaps best exemplified by the 2001 "flame" design created for the Gordon DuPont Chevrolet. With a nod to the 1950s hot rod tradition and to his popular 1992 Gordon rainbow car and with a commanding use of color, the Bass design gives a sense of movement and power to the car even when it is sitting still.
While Bass has produced a staggering volume of work, including thousands of originals, more than 200 race car and truck designs and corporate displays, he spends much of his time on the race circuit, an important aspect of remaining connected to the sport as both a fan and artist. He designs not only for the Winston Cup but also for Busch Grand National, Craftsman Truck, Indy Racing League, and National Hot Rod Association. His designs literally and figuratively cover every aspect of the racing business, including commissioned portraits, race cars, transporters, uniforms, and helmets as well as point-of-purchase displays, mascots, business logos, and souvenir programs, examples of which will be on display. The design process, from conceptual sketches to the creation of production specifications, is headquartered at the new Sam Bass Gallery in Concord, NC.
Major sponsor of the exhibition is Cloninger Ford-Toyota. Underwriters include KKA Architecture, Hap and Annette Roberts and Statewide Title, Inc., SouthTrust Bank, and Summit Developers. Work in the exhibition will include original watercolors as well as work in mixed media. Bass has been designing distinctive NASCAR Winston Cup team graphic identities for more than a decade beginning with Bobby Allison's 1988 Miller Buick. This racing season he designed for Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Jerry Nadeau, Mike Wallace, and Michael Waltrip.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings or call the Center at 704/636-1882 or at (http://www.waterworks.org).
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