Roaring: Art, Fashion and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939

Interwar France was a period of exceptional creativity, innovation and turbulence. Roaring: Art, Fashion and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939, explores the role of the automobile as both subject and object from 1918 to 1939, untangling the impact of fashion, interiors, architecture, aviation and the avant-garde on French automobile design and production.

Showing at the Saint Louis Art Museum from April 12 to July 27, 2025, Roaring brings together more than 100 works of art and design, including paintings, photographs, prints, posters, furniture, lighting, architectural plans, fashion, textiles and automobiles.

Expansive and interdisciplinary, Roaring illuminates the rich, creative ecosystems that nourished this golden age of French automotive design and influenced modern concepts of mobility. The exhibition highlights the bold, untethered visions of figures such as Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Le Corbusier, André  Citroën and Josephine Baker, who embraced the automobile as a provocative expression of the modern age.