Exhibit Closed | Silver Shotgun

EXHIBITION ABSTRACT

Italian design metamorphosized in the late 1960s into a globally recognized juggernaut of sexy, finely crafted, and highly coveted objects. Formerly sober fashion, industrial design, and motorcycle factories awoke to brilliant color, metalflake paint, and body-conscious shapes that spoke particularly well to a chic, discerning audience. The Italian motorcycle industry had focused on small-displacement motorcycles in the 1940s-60s, but by the end of the ’60s revealed large-displacement factory café racers in shocking colors and paint schemes that were the envy of the world. Ducati’s “Silver Shotgun” paint scheme for its factory racers, 450 Desmo, and 750SS/900SS models were emblematic of the period and for the first time beat the world’s best on the race track and became the pinnacle of desire for ordinary riders.

Silver Shotgun exhibits the relationship between cutting-edge Italian motorcycles of the late 1960s and 1970s and Italian industrial design and fashion, when these industries seemed to explode with color, energy, and competitive vigor.