A Guide to the Best of Southern California : CARS : Art Trafficking

The former Uniroyal tire factory--an Assyrian-styled monstrosity made a monument by time, nostalgia and generations of commuters stalled on the northbound Santa Ana Freeway--is making a brief return to the auto business.

For eight weeks beginning Oct. 26, the 1929 landmark, recently scrubbed, gutted and restored into a clothing factory outlet, will host “the CAR the ART.” The exhibition and sale will showcase 100 automotive artists, $30,000 oils of early racing scenes by the late Peter Helck, classic bronzes by Stanley Wanlass and a full selection of $10 posters for junior’s bedroom.

Southern California artist Harold Cleworth will sign lithographs, including 10 mint survivors from his 1978 limited edition of a Gullwing Mercedes 300SL. The original work, worth an estimated $30,000, is with the Gullwing’s collector-owner in San Francisco. A record 200,000 posters of the painting are in circulation, and Cleworth sees it all as a coming of age. “Western, marine, aviation . . . they have all assumed a place in fine art,” he says. “Automotive art is sure to follow.”

The Citadel, 5675 Telegraph Road, City of Commerce; (213) 923-3310.