Discover the mechanics of Vincent Black Shadow
A discussion of the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle, from the documentary In Our Time: The Museum of Modern Art.
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Transcript
[Music in]
TERENCE RILEY: We have one motorcycle. This was given to us by James Gubelmann III and the Tropical Gangsters Motorcycle Racing Club. People will look at this motorcycle and say, "Boy, that's beautiful; that's a beauty." And they don't mean beautiful the way they mean a painting's beautiful. It's a different kind of beautiful that really is part of the world of design.
GLENN LOWRY: Up until the Black Shadow, motorcycles were really bicycles that had been motorized. Vincent Black Shadow no longer has anything to do with the bicycle; it's now about a highly refined machine for speed.
TERENCE RILEY: The mechanics have gotten rid of every superfluous element, including the frame. The motor is actually structural; it connects the front of the bike to the back of the bike. To us this is really the motorcycle, the highest achievement of the mechanic. They were not trying to make something beautiful; they were trying to make something that did what it was supposed to do better than anything and anyone else ever did.
GLENN LOWRY: Vincent Black Shadow, it's a great work of art.
[Music out]
TERENCE RILEY: We have one motorcycle. This was given to us by James Gubelmann III and the Tropical Gangsters Motorcycle Racing Club. People will look at this motorcycle and say, "Boy, that's beautiful; that's a beauty." And they don't mean beautiful the way they mean a painting's beautiful. It's a different kind of beautiful that really is part of the world of design.
GLENN LOWRY: Up until the Black Shadow, motorcycles were really bicycles that had been motorized. Vincent Black Shadow no longer has anything to do with the bicycle; it's now about a highly refined machine for speed.
TERENCE RILEY: The mechanics have gotten rid of every superfluous element, including the frame. The motor is actually structural; it connects the front of the bike to the back of the bike. To us this is really the motorcycle, the highest achievement of the mechanic. They were not trying to make something beautiful; they were trying to make something that did what it was supposed to do better than anything and anyone else ever did.
GLENN LOWRY: Vincent Black Shadow, it's a great work of art.
[Music out]