‘Cycle Thru! The Art of the Bike’ at the Cincinnati Art Museum
The special exhibition is open through Aug. 24. Twenty bikes are on display, arranged in chronological order, and they reflect the ways in which bikes have been a “vehicle for change and artistic inspiration,” according to CAM’s curator of decorative design, Amy Dehan.
Visitors may climb on a high wheel replica for a photo op.
And check this out: Those who ride a bike to the museum and take a selfie in the parking lot will get into the exhibit free of charge.
Carillon Historical Park in Dayton
Dayton has a rich history of bike manufacturing so it’s no surprise that Carillon has dozens of historic bikes exhibited in various locations throughout the park.
“Two of our most incredible bicycles were built by the Wright Brothers,” said the park’s president and CEO, Brady Kress. “There are only five Wright Brothers built bicycles on the planet and we have two of them. We also have the Huffy Olympic Time Trial Bike from 1984.”
The U.S. team’s bike was custom-made for the Olympic Team Time Trial, and only 12 were produced.
You’ll find many of the bikes at Carillon in the Cyclery Building, which focuses on the Miami Valley’s role in bicycle evolution.
The Bicycle Museum of America in New Bremen
The bikes on display in Cincinnati are on loan from The Bicycle Museum of America in New Bremen.
“The history of the bicycle spans far beyond serving as a vehicle for recreation or racing,” said the The Bicycle Museum’s manager Brittany Venturella. “The revolutionary early safety bicycle made a large social and economic impact. For example, the bicycle enabled people from diverse backgrounds to travel when they may not be able to afford a horse. It also helped provide women with a new sense of freedom and access at a time when they could not vote.”
Said Susan B. Anthony: “Bicycling… has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.”
The quadricycle even inspired the first automobile manufactured by Ford.
The New Bremen museum is home to more than 600 bicycles spanning from the early 1800s to today. With more than 200 bicycles displayed alongside bicycle memorabilia on the museum’s three floors, guests can explore how the bicycle evolved and influenced daily life.
“They may even find a bicycle that they remember riding as a child,” said Venturella. “You can also see racing bicycles, military bicycles, and those that were inspired by pop culture. Guests are welcome to ride a high wheel bicycle and a pedal car or participate in a guided tour, available upon request.”
What to know about the Cincinnati exhibit
The Cincy bike exhibit got its start in 2023 when museum director Cameron Kitchin visited The Church art center in Sag Harbor, New York. It didn’t take long for him to discover that the impressive exhibit entitled “Re:Cycle: The Ubiquitous Bike” was created in partnership with a bicycle museum in Ohio. So Kitchin got busy figuring out a way the exhibit could come to his museum in Cincinnati.
“He really enjoyed the concept of combining contemporary art and bicycles and looking at the various histories the bicycles can take you through as an object,” said Dehan.
Fast-forward to April 4 and the opening of the new CAM exhibit which has been tweaked a bit since its Sag Harbor run. It still showcases bikes that illustrate the types of design innovations —both functional and aesthetic — that mark the vehicle’s important development. But drawing from its own collection, CAM has added bike-themed artwork including contemporary art by Jarbas Lopes, Bas Jan Adler and Bari Kumar as well as photographs by Christine Osinski, Aaron Siskind and Ralph Steiner. There are vintage circus posters and prints by Jean Dubuffet, Oda Mayumi and Henri de Toulouse-Latrec.
One of Dehan’s favorite bikes in the exhibit is the Skylark bicycle.
“It was designed in the 1950s and shows the ways the rise of the automobile impacted the design of bicycles,” she said. “Bicycles really led the way to the development of the automobile. The bicycling movement encouraged the improvement of roads and the national network of highways. It became kind of competition. You’d see the influence of car design seeping into bicycles: integrated headlights, a lot of chrome-plated elements bright color surfaces, pinstriping, integrated speedometers, built-in headlights, electric horns and an emphasis on speed and aerodynamics.”
You’ll see women’s cycling wear from the 1890s, like the divided skirt that converted from pants to a skirt after a spin and a sweater that was part of the uniform of the Queen Cycling Club of Cincinnati and Covington. Founded in 1890, it was “the first ladies’ wheel club” in the city.
“Eight dauntless young women decided to brave public opinion, banding themselves together as a club, and ever since, they have enjoyed the delights of spinning over the country freely and at will,” wrote the Cincinnati Enquirer at that time.
Mackenzie Strong, curatorial assistant, said cyclists of color in the late nineteenth century would often use the bicycle as a tool in their activism for equal rights.
“There was one woman cyclist based in Boston who successfully used her skills and expertise as a cyclist to challenge the racism and discrimination that was present in cycling leagues across the country at the time,” she said.
Dehan said the most popular bike in the exhibit has been Pee-Wee Herman’s customized 1953 Schwinn DX Cruiser that starred in Tim Burton’s 1985 film, “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.” Other fascinating bikes include a rare cast iron “Boneshaker” velocipede manufactured in the mid-1800s and a 1901 Wolff-American Ice Bicycle engineered to travel on frozen terrain.
“We selected the bicycles we thought were most telling for the narrative around the history of the bicycle and the development of its design and its role in social history,” said Dehan. “We really focus on one bicycle at a time. We decided to include a bicycle that was used by paratroopers in World War II.”
Dayton ties
Two of the bikes on display in Cincinnati have Dayton connections. You’ll see a seafoam-green 1950s Huffy Radiobike designed so riders could cruise to their tunes of choice. A women’s steel and plastic Stoddard Cygnet reflects the Art Nouveau style popular at the time and is one of only 10 such bikes known to exist today.
It features a leather saddle and a cloth skirt guard designed to keep long dresses from getting caught in the wheel spokes.
Both of these bikes are also on display at Carillon Park in Dayton.
“As you get into late 19th century, there were close to 1000 companies across the country making bicycles,” said Kress. “Dayton was the city of a thousand factories, had transportation corridors and an affinity for manufacturing, especially when we helped develop the safety bicycle that’s now standard.”
In the late 1880s, the safety bicycle, which featured two wheels of comparable size, was developed as a safer alternative to the penny-farthing, which featured a large front wheel and was prone to causing falls.
“We were excited to work with the Cincinnati Art Museum through the ‘Cycle Thru’ exhibit,” said Venturella. “The creative pairing of the bicycles from the Bicycle Museum of America and the Cincinnati Art Museum’s collections provided a new perspective and interesting narrative about bicycle history.
“We are thankful that those not able to travel to our museum in New Bremen can still enjoy many of our bicycles and learn about cycling history.”
HOW TO GO
What: “Cycle Thru! The Art of the Bike”
Where: Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati
When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Through August 24.
Admission: Tickets are $12, with discounted rates for students, children, and seniors. Save $2 when purchasing tickets online. Admission is free for museum members. The exhibition will be free for members and nonmembers every Thursday evening from 5–8 p.m. on May 30, June 27 and July 25.
Parking: Free
Related programming:
• From 5-9 p.m. on Friday, May 30 there’s Art After Dark, a free event featuring docent-led tours of the bicycle exhibit, a hybrid dance, spoken word, and video performance by Pones. Also cash bars, art-making activities, selfie-stations. No registration is required.
•A gallery talk, “Bicycles and Freedom,” will be held from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, June 14. Madelyn Detloff, Professor of English, Global and Intercultural Studies at Miami University will focus on the intersections of bicycling and women’s history. Admission is $20, $5 for students and reservations are required.
MORE HISTORICAL BIKE VIEWING
• For information on Carillon Historical Park, see daytonhistory.org
• For information on The Bicycle Museum of America, see bicyclemuseum.com
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