Detroit library shows collection of auto ad drawings
Photographer Jim Secreto’s collection of hand-drafted automobile ads is now on display at the Detroit Public Library’s Skillman branch.
Excerpts from the article:
An automotive advertising photographer, Jim Secreto, 61, has been collecting car advertising art for 18 years. His collecting has taken him to estate sales and auctions and a few musty basements of old illustrators.
A collection of those old automotive ad campaigns — from pencil sketches to colorful illustrations done in oils and gouache — are on display at the Detroit Public Library’s Skillman branch. Titled Drawing Power: Motor City Ad Art in the Age of Muscle & Chrome, the exhibit features more than three dozen examples of advertising car art — 90% of which is owned by Secreto and his wife, Melanie. The others come from the library’s collection.
Originally scheduled to run through the end of March, the exhibition — funded through a grant from MotorCities National Heritage Area and a matching donation from the Friends of the Detroit Public Library — has been extended until the end of April.
The artwork at the exhibit ranges from a 1927 REO Speedwagon in two-color pencil on tissue paper to the brochure for the 1979 Dodge Diplomat, believed to be the last completely hand-illustrated.
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