For decades, MFA visitors who read the small print have been familiar with the names of Jean and Fred Sharf. “Gift of Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf” has appeared at the bottom of hundreds upon hundreds of the labels next to artworks in our galleries. One theme does run through the Sharfs’ collection: transportation. Fred, whose energy was legendary and who was always on the move, had forever been fascinated by the great speeding up of life that occurred in the middle decades of the 20th century. Planes, trains, and, most of all, automobiles, appear over and over again in the collection, as Fred had sought to capture the excitement that accompanied the simple act of getting from one place to another at mid-century.

The exhibit tries to capture both the speed lines and stylized curves of the early to mid-century, but also the wonder and boyish fascination of such a collection.