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Almost from the day when Carl Benz dropped a two-stroke petrol engine into the back end of a tricycle, thus laying the foundations of the motor age and a vast global automobile industry, artists have taken inspiration from cars – and car makers, in their turn, have been inspired by art. Perhaps that was inevitable, as few modern inventions had such a profound effect on society and culture in the 20th-century as the motor car. As its use became widespread, the automobile became for time a liberating force, one that enabled its owners to travel far more widely, independently and spontaneously than they’d ever previously imagined possible, and especially so in the United States, where it became an essential theme in popular and even high culture.