The Iris Clert Gallery in Paris is presided over by a Greek-born charmeuse who is credited with discovering such far-out artistic types as Jean Tinguely, whose machine-operated sculptures literally destroy themselves, and the monochromist Yves Klein, who used his nude models as living paintbrushes. Eighteen months ago the gallery was the scene of a unique exposition of the astrological automobiles of François Dallegret. Dallegret, an architectural student at the Ecôle des Beaux Arts, conceived and created twelve motorcars to suit the personalities of those born under the twelve Zodiac signs. His work has appeared in such European magazines as TWEN, MARIE-CLAIRE and ADAM. This is his first appearance on this side of the Atlantic.

Dallegret's designs are the result of raising the tools and techniques of the draftsman to those of a craftsman. Working at a drawing board and using only the draftsman's standard instruments, Dallegret has succeeded· in creating a series of automobiles that will never be built, but no matter. Are you a Sagittarian? Dallegret's carryall "bus" surely fits your outgoing personality .. Or, are you a Taurean? (General U. S. Grant was a Taurean.) Then Dallegret's powerful vehicle best suits the personality of 'the determined person born under this sign. Are you perhaps a Leo? (Henry Ford was, too.) What better motorcar could you buy or imagine than the regal Leo chariot dreamed up by Dallegret?

For the record, Dallegret was born in Morocco on September 25, 1938, which, of course, makes him a Libran.
He drives a Bugatti 57 and owns three Citroëns and a Simca ali roadsters, none of which are Libran cars.

// François Dallegret’s Astrological Automobiles: Occult Commodities for France in the 1960s by Sarah K. Rich