Fins and Chrome, Ooh La La

“To call Art Fitzpatrick an automobile illustrator,” writes Dave Caldwell in The New York Times, “is to leave half of the canvas blank.” Mr. Fitzpatrick is the man behind the chrome when it comes to selling cars in dreamlike illustrations “pitching a carefree lifestyle.” His luminescent ads for Life, Look, and the Saturday Evening Post for Pontiac Bonnevilles and Catalinas created the aura for American behemoth automobiles (and influenced Bruce McCall’s parodies (bottom) in “The Last Dream-O-Rama.”) The Times refers to him as “the Michelangelo of the Muscle Car,” but more than that, he is the chronicler of the American Dream. See his recent set of Fins and Chrome U.S. stamps below.