- Amalgam Collection and Alan Thornton launch the fruit of their most recent collaboration: the Ford GT40, a Limited Edition of just 200 Fine Art Prints
- Each piece measures 1.0 metre (38 inches) wide by 0.7 metres (27 inches) tall
- Created in partnership with Ford and Gulf International, each Fine Art Print depicts a precise and vibrant profile of the 24 Hours of Le Mans winning car driven to victory by Jackie Ickx and Jackie Oliver in 1969.
- Photography and artwork have been perfectly executed by artist Alan Thornton
- Each piece is hand printed onto the finest Saunders Waterford 425 gsm archival paper at Coriander Studio Fine Art Printmakers in London
- Fine Art Prints are available to purchase now from Amalgam Collection and will cost £1,200 GBP / €1,480 EUR / $1,620 USD each
- Media assets, including a video, can be downloaded here
Bristol UK – 24 April 2024 – Photographer Alan Thornton, working with a design and print making process employed by the legendary pop artist Andy Warhol has brought yet another iconic car to life, the 1969 Ford GT40 driven to victory at the 24 Hour of Le Mans by Jackie Ickx and Jackie Oliver. The collaboration between the Amalgam Collection and Thornton will offer a limited edition of 200 Fine Art Prints measuring 1.0 metre (38 inches) wide by 0.7 metres (27 inches) tall on archival paper.
What makes Alan’s work so desirable and memorable is his precise creative control over every aspect of the work, from photography through to the ink mixing and pulling of the prints. Rather than use a four-colour print process, each of the GT40 Fine Art Edition’s seven colours are defined and mixed to represent each element of the car’s paint and material finishes. The process demands much careful mixing of the inks and the hand pulling of each colour to manage the spread of the dots onto the paper and achieve the desired outcome. The resulting print has colours of great purity and intensity. Skilled technique and creativity are essential to every stage of this highly skilled craft. The process is sensitive to the touch, feel and technique of the printer, and as a result each print is unique. The meticulous nature of the process delivers works of extraordinary presence and depth.
Amalgam Collection and Ford
Amalgam is proud to be an Official Licenced Partner of Ford and Gulf Oil International, capturing iconic models from the marque in both fine model and art print format. The partnership began over five years ago, with the development of a 1:8 scale of the 1969 Le Mans-winning GT40, and now the collection also features an open edition of models at 1:18 scale, and a special limited 1:8 Race Weathered edition.
Amalgam Collection and Alan Thornton
Sandy Copeman, founder of Amalgam Collection, on the artworks of Alan Thornton: “Amalgam’s core mission has always been to capture iconic cars in supremely detailed large-scale models. When I met with Alan Thornton in 2020 it became clear to me very quickly that he was on a parallel mission to fully comprehend and capture iconic car designs and render them into perfectly worked 2D artworks. As with Amalgam’s models, Alan’s work exudes a passionate attention to the finest details, melded together to deliver a deep and powerful image of the subject car. Alan’s artistic comprehension of the car designer’s intentions, combined with his extreme technical virtuosity and a passion for the automotive subjects, results in very special artworks of great intensity and beauty. Presenting these works in person to the lead designers at Ford elicited an immediate and tremendously excited response, leading to a swift engagement and discussions about the most important classic and current cars representing Ford’s design DNA.”
The Ford GT40 & the 1969 Le Mans 24 Hours
One of the most iconic racing cars of all time, the Ford GT40 was born out of motorsport’s most infamous grudge, between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari. The result was a car that was to defeat all before it, eventually securing four successive victories at the 24 Hours Le Mans. The last of these was in 1969, as GT40 chassis #1075, driven by Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver, survived mechanical mishap and impending pressure from Porsche to secure the Le Mans quadruple by just 120 metres.
The Amalgam Collection and Alan Thornton Ford GT40 Fine Art Edition is available at www.amalgamcollection.com.
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High resolution images and video can be found here >
Video can also be found for embedding on YouTube >
EDITORS' NOTES:
MEDIA CONTACTS
PR & Media Enquiries: tom.gibsoncommunications@gmail.com, T: (201) 476-0322, Mobile: (201) 264-3646
PR & Media Enquiries: pressandmedia@amalgam.com
Director of Brand and Business Development: Sandy Copeman sandy.copeman@amalgam.com
Business and Sales Enquiries: enquiries@amalgam.com
About Amalgam Collection:
Amalgam’s team of crafts-people are recognised worldwide as makers of the finest hand-made large-scale models. Their work is unique in its attention to detail, with a focus on creating models that truly capture the style and spirit of each car. They have dedicated all their skill and passion to achieving a level of excellence that raises the impact and value of each finished piece far above anything previously created.
For cars they have already modelled at 1:8 in a limited edition, the team at Amalgam offers a tailormade service, customising a model to perfectly match the specification of an owner’s real car. For owners of unique very high value cars, Amalgam Collection offers even bigger 1:5 or 1:4 ‘one-off’ model builds from their UK workshops in Bristol, England. The team will digitally scan the car wherever it is in the world and take up to a thousand pictures of every detail, allowing them to perfectly and accurately replicate everything at scale. Given the significant number of hours required to develop a unique model, the costs are high, so the model is built at a very large scale to maximise the impact and detail, and to deliver the ultimate finished piece.
Amalgam Collection’s design, management and development heart is in England, with extraordinarily skilled and dedicated teams producing the bigger editions in Hungary and China. They are a multinational, multicultural team of craftsmen and women, dedicated to creating the world’s most precise, beautiful and exclusive models. Inspired by the F1 teams and iconic luxury car marques of England and Italy that they serve and partner with, they take huge pride in their mission to perfectly capture the designs, and honour the designers, drivers and creators of the automotive art they love.
HOW AMALGAM MODELS ARE CREATED
- The patterns are created using original CAD from the manufacturer, or extraordinarily accurate digital scans and hundreds of photographs of an original classic car.
- The patterns are used to create silicon rubber moulds that capture every detail.
- Prototyping resin is used to cast the parts from the silicon moulds. Around 20 to 30 parts can be cast from each mould and then a new one must be made.
- Each model is built from thousands of parts: castings, photo-etchings and CNC machined metal components.
- Genuine car paints and manufacturer or archive colour references are used to spray the bodywork.
- It takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours to develop the tooling for each model.
- It takes between 250 and 450 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint and build each model.
Every Amalgam Fine Model Car is made entirely by hand from thousands of parts. Detailed original CAD data is supplied by the car's manufacturer or the race team of the car to be modelled. The process of developing each model and creating the master patterns takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours of skilled work depending on the complexity of the car, with classic cars taking the longest.
In the case of the classic cars an extremely accurate digital scan is made of the car, and hundreds of photographs of all the details of a carefully selected original car are taken, to ensure complete accuracy and adherence to the authentic finishes and materials. Many parts of the model are machined from metal with the major components hand cast from prototyping resin. Each model is individually assembled by a small team of highly skilled model-makers. In total the time taken to machine, cast, hand fettle, paint, polish and assemble each model is between 250 and 450 hours of highly skilled work depending on the complexity of the car.
The finished model is a very precise scale replica of the original car with every detail perfectly and authentically represented at an 8th of the original size. This is modelling elevated to such a high level that it becomes an art form.
Since 1995 Amalgam have been admired and hugely respected by leading designers and engineers in the European automotive industry, as well as F1 designers, drivers and team principals. Amalgam's models appear on the desks of CEOs and presidents of the world's most important car companies. Due to the extreme accuracy and authenticity of Amalgam's creations, made in small limited editions, they are also much sought after by devoted collectors of fine handmade objects across Europe and in the USA.