An artist asks, is there a market for memorabilia of a car so rare?
by Lita Makati –
Wallace Wyss, a fine artist on the West Coast, tells us that he was shocked that Bizzarrini GT 5300 Stradas have passed one million dollars in value but “there is no Bizzarrini memorabilia compared to, say, Ferrari.”
“Oh there are a couple of books–both out of print–but I don’t see hats, jackets, art, etc.
To date, Wyss has made a half dozen oil paintings of Isos and Bizzarrinis, and put several of the images onto cloth to be sewn onto jackets. “I prefer to sell a painting (20″ x 30″ on canvas–Ed.) and then include the jacket with the same painting reproduced on cotton to those customers ordering the painting. But if someone wants to order a jacket specifically without ordering a painting it’s available.”
Wyss has done over 100 oil portraits of cars in all. He has been termed a “primitif” by French standards because he has no art degree. One of his paintings of a Delahaye was selected for the Mullin Museum, a museum devoted to French classic cars.
For his prototype jackets, he added some ad copy, such as a plug for the action thriller novel he is pitching to Hollywood or his anthology of 30 fantasy stories. “For jackets ordered by clients, I can leave the words off,” he jokes.
His subject interest area up until 2021 was Ferraris, Porsches and Cobras but his sudden change of heart came in December 2020, came when he was standing on a dock in total darkness in Malibu at 6:00 a.m. when a blue Bizzarrini GT 5300 pulled into the deserted parking lot at precisely the same moment that the sun popped above the horizon.
The freshly restored Bizzarrini had just arrived from France, and that sighting rekindled his love of the marque, which he hadn’t seen on the street since the last time Pebble Beach had a Bizzarrini class. His personal involvement with them goes back to the ’80s when, as a barn finder, he found and bought three of them–all for clients.
“I’ll be doing some Iso Grifo portraits too, but there’s still a few colors of Bizzarrini I haven’t done yet,” he reports.
Wyss can be reached at malibucarart@gmail.com
THE AUTHOR: Lita Makati is the pen name of Wyss’ PR lady.
Wyss: “When I’m in Malibu, early sometimes, there’s a mist. I like it as it reduces the distraction of the background.”
The (red?) car is a print on heavy art paper.
Sharp looking car right there, nice clean lines, minimal approach to design.