“The Man in White” is the name of a series of classic car-related paintings My Car Quest contributor Wallace Wyss is preparing for his booth at Concorso Italiano, an event that’s part of Monterey Car Week.
There is no longer an AFAS tent at Pebble Beach and the Automobilia show at the Embassy Suites has been postponed to 2022 so it’s going to be a tad harder to find art at this year’s Monterey Car Week.
Wyss said, “I got the idea for a series depicting the recurring Man in White from first seeing writer Dennis Adler, the car writer, one year at a show all in white and he looked stunning, but he didn’t have the last touch–a matching wide-brimmed hat. Then I remembered years ago, maybe 30 years, there was an artist in France named Raffia doing the posters for the Bagatelle Concours and in each poster there would be someone in all white with a wide brim hat, a man or a woman. He did other posters for car events but didn’t carry over the same talisman. Since I wear white at Pebble Beach and bought an extra-wide brim hat, I thought I’d picture the Man in White at different venues.”
Wyss, who has dallied with Hollywood on film ideas, says it also reminds him of the 1940’s movies, when being dapper was something you expected of the protagonist. “I even get a kick out of seeing historical pictures of such widely divergent people as gangster Mickey Cohen and Benito Mussolini, both dressed to the nines.”
So far he’s chosen to depict his Man in White with a wide variety of cars– a Ferrari 275GTB, a Ferrari 250P in a racing setting, a blue Delahaye in Paris, possibly with bodywork by Saoutchik, and a black Bugatti that was the wedding car of the Shah of Iran, a gift from the French government.
“I haven’t seen that many people, even at Pebble Beach, dressed in period clothing,” says Wyss “But I hope the influence of the large British event Goodwood, will grow. His Lordship even publishes a dress guide, and I’ve heard there are some sub-events there you can’t enter if not dressed properly. That really grinds me at concours in the U.S. when I see people in Polo shirts, bermuda shorts and flip-flops –they ruin the ambiance…
Those art aficionados who can’t make it to Concorso Italiano can correspond with Wyss about art by writing mendoart7@gmail.com
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Wallace Wyss in White
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