(Excerpt from Preface by Michael Kan, then Acting Director of the Detroit Insititute of Arts)

The automobile has become a necessary form of transportation as well as an icon of popular culture in the twentieth century. The development of the automobile industry in Detroit has greatly influenced the growth of the city and of its museum. It is with great pleasure that we present "Detroit Style ― Automotive Form 1925-1950," an exhibition that bridges the gap between industrial design and the fine arts as it demonstrates the aesthetics and history of automotive design in a period now considered classic. This exhibition will take its place among a number of distinguished exhibitions on design held over the years at the Detroit Institute of Arts and will be of great interest on many levels to a wide public. It is one entirely appropriate to the celebration of the museum's Centennial, and I invite everyone to enjoy the drawings and models for cars both unrealized and mass-produced, as well as the classic automobiles themselves, as examples which successfully combine functional and three-dimensional form.