LED BY VINTAGE WORKS FROM ART FITZPATRICK AND VAN KAUFMAN, HERITAGE’S UPCOMING ILLUSTRATION ART AUCTION SPOTLIGHTS THE VISIONARIES WHO HELPED DEFINE AMERICAN MODERNISM ON WHEELS
By Sarahjane Blum | February 3, 2026
Beginning in the Mercury Motors art department in the 1940s, before moving to Buick and finally Pontiac, Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman created a body of automotive art that set the standard for car advertising throughout the mid-20th century. Thirteen examples from their historic collaboration lead the selection of 43 pieces from the Bob and Diane Yaspan Collection of Automotive Art featured in Heritage’s February 5–6 Classic American Illustration Art Showcase Auction. Together they provide a window into the lost art that created classic car culture in America.
Below, we present highlights from the auction, including works by other masters of the art of automotive advertising.
Arthur ‘Art’ Fitzpatrick & Van Kaufman ‘Bonneville, Pontiac Wide-Track advertisement,’ 1969. Mixed media on board. 13 x 14-1/2 inches (33.0 x 36.8 cm) (sight). Available in Heritage’s February 5–6 Classic American Illustration Art Showcase Auction and accompanied by a magazine tearsheet.
In their long-running partnership, Art Fitzpatrick was responsible for the hyperrealistic detailed renderings of the cars themselves, while Van Kaufman would fill in the aspirational fantasies the cars represented with his scenes in which the cars appeared. Nowhere is their collaborative power more on display than in this 1969 advertisement for the Pontiac Bonneville Wide-Track, which uses the romance of the rainy day to underscore the sleekness of the car poised to whisk this happy couple into the future.
Bill Dobson ‘Race Car concept car design,’ 1957. Watercolor and color pencil on board. 18-3/4 x 25-1/2 inches (47.6 x 64.8 cm). Available in Heritage’s February 5–6 Classic American Illustration Art Showcase Auction.
Bill Dobson stands as another major figure in the world of automotive art and design. Beginning his career as a staff artist for Aerojet General Corp. in the 1950s, he is remembered today for his encyclopedic knowledge of car design and his long history of drawings for Road & Track magazine.
Homer LaGassey ‘Galaxie Ford concept car design,’ 1966. Mixed media on paper. 18 x 25-1/4 inches (45.7 x 64.1 cm) (sight). Available in Heritage’s February 5–6 Classic American Illustration Art Showcase Auction.
Homer LaGassey found himself in the heart of the automotive scene, working as assistant chief designer of Pontiac and Buick before moving to Chrysler, striking out on his own, and finally settling in an executive design position at Ford, where he would help develop exteriors of many of the most iconic cars of the 1960s, including the Galaxie.
Allan Kass ‘Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe advertisement,’ 1954. Gouache on board. 18 x 20-1/4 inches (45.7 x 51.4 cm). Available in Heritage’s February 5–6 Classic American Illustration Art Showcase Auction and accompanied by a 1954 brochure for the car.
Before moving to New York in the late 1960s to become a tremendously prolific paperback cover illustrator, Allan Kass worked for a decade in Detroit. There he created advertising and promotional art for the automotive industry, including this 1954 example for the Chrysler New Yorker showcasing its automatic transmission in action in a Maxfield Parrish-inspired mountain landscape.
William ‘Bill’ Flajole ‘Fiat Traveler concept design.’ Watercolor on board. 13-1/2 x 23-1/4 inches (34.3 x 59.1 cm) (sight). Available in Heritage’s February 5–6 Classic American Illustration Art Showcase Auction.
Bill Flajole’s name is most connected to the unique fiberglass Flajole Forerunner he built based on the 1951 Jaguar XK120, and his design for the Nash NXI. This original concept drawing of a Fiat Traveler showcases his obsession with all things innovative in car culture and is a rare example of his work coming available for auction.
‘Mr. Ripley, Chrysler De Soto advertisement,’ 1938. Watercolor on board. 11 x 15-1/2 inches (27.9 x 39.4 cm). Available in Heritage’s February 5–6 Classic American Illustration Art Showcase Auction and accompanied by two magazine tearsheets.
Car designers and artists were essential to the creation of car culture, as were celebrity endorsements, as seen here in this advertisement for the 1938 Chrysler De Soto, which counted none other than Bob Ripley of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! among its fans.
