BILL MITCHELL
Art In Perpetual MotionBill Mitchell was a great designer because, to him, an automobile was an instrument of strong individuality and high adventures. When you "put it on" you were somebody and you really went somewhere just for the wild fun of it. With muscles or class (or both), the car was an indispensable part of life that brought joy and pride to millions of owners through the enchantment of style. Nobody played that composition with more enthusiasm that Bill Mitchell.
Every kid in school knows that you fantasize what you don't have and if you can draw it that's one step closer to reality. Bill's dad lit the flame by bringing home racy Stutz and Mercer trade-ins from his Buick agency so that Carnegie Tech's mechanical engineering college courses looked like a natural education but his passion was drawing. During summers with his mother in New York he began working at Barron Collier's advertising agency during the day and taking courses at the Art Students League at night. That's where the really good illustrators came to brush up on their technique. That fraternity opened up a whole new vista of fine art as an expression of design and drama that gave Bill an extensive vocabulary for his own work and a deep appreciation for the splendor in the paintings of great professional artists. When the opportunity came to submit some idea sketches for cars as a candidate designer to Harley Earl at General Motors in 1933, he communicated his sense of sweeping form and proportion with such polish that he was invited to join the Art & Colour Section; and he never slowed down from that point on. His spirit and success led him to become Vice President of Design from 1959 to 1977.
If one thing characterizes all of Bill's work it is vigor. Regardless of the medium, there is a bold intention in every statement that breathes vitality and excitement and that is a direct reflection of his personality. He was a non-stop entertainer and story teller with a zest for adventure reflected in every drawing and painting. Behind all of that was a laugh that kept everything in a progressive frame of reference, never static. All of Bill's design sketches and paintings have one other thing in common: the subjects are alive and in motion. The viewer automatically becomes the driver of the machine sensing its power under the enormously long hood, the extravagant flair and taper of its body form, and the dazzling grandeur of its ornamentation.
Bill always had a studio in his home. When he retired in 1977 he revived his heroes of Grand Prix racing by painting their great triumphs as he saw and felt them, In the thirties he was inspired by the paintings and drawings of Frederick Gordon Crosby. Later, he became good friends with Peter Helck, Michael Turner, and Walter Gotschke; he collected their works and shared their insights. They all were captivated by the sheer drama of cars at the limit in action and doing what cars were designed to do. The drivers were heroes and Bill was fascinated by their exploits, lifestyles, and careers as related in their biographies. He entertained the contemporary champions at GM Design and at his home, much to the great delight of his whole staff.
After Bill died in the Fall of 1988, his wife Marian generously gave his great legacy of drawings and paintings to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn so that they may be a reference in perpetuity for all aspiring designers and all who love cars.
