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BMW Art Car
Art project
Art project
The BMW Art Car Project was introduced by the French racecar driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain, who wanted to invite an artist to create a canvas on an automobile.
In 1975, Poulain commissioned American artist and friend Alexander Calder to paint the first BMW Art Car. This first example would be a BMW 3.0 CSL which Poulain himself would race in the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.
Since Calder's work of art, many other renowned artists throughout the world have created BMW Art Cars, including David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol. To date, a total of 20 BMW Art Cars, based on both racing and regular production vehicles, have been created. Frank Stella also made one unofficial art car at the behest of race car driver Peter Gregg. The most recent artist to the join BMW Art Car program is Julie Mehretu in 2024 with her BMW M Hybrid V8. Artists for the BMW Art Car Project are chosen by a panel of international judges.
According to Thomas Girst, who has been in charge of the BMW Art Cars project since 2004, the purpose of the project has changed over time: "In the beginning the cars were raced. There wasn't much of a public relations effort around them... Since then, some of the Art Cars have been used in advertisements to show that BMW is a player in the arts. With the Eliason work, part of what we are doing is raising awareness of alternative and renewable energy sources."
For the 50th birthday of the BMW Art Car Project in 2025, a world tour has been scheduled that will take the art cars to various museums and events around the world.
BMW Art Cars
| No. | Photo | Artist | Model | Year | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [[File:Calder CSL.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | Alexander Calder | 3.0 CSL | 1975 | ||||||||
| 2 | [[File:Stella5.JPG | frameless | upright=1.0]] | Frank Stella | 3.0 CSL | 1976 | ||||||||
| 3 | [[File:BMWArtCar-Lichtenstein.JPG | frameless]] | Roy Lichtenstein | 320 | 1977 | |||||||||
| 4 | [[File:BMW M1.jpg | frameless]] | Andy Warhol | M1 Group 4 | 1979 | |||||||||
| 5 | Ernst Fuchs | 635 CSi | 1982 | |||||||||||
| 6 | [[File:BMW 635 CSi Art Car by Robert Rauschenberg, April 2009-1.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | Robert Rauschenberg | 635 CSi | 1986 | ||||||||
| 7 | [[File:Michael Nelson Jagamarra BMW Art Car.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | Michael Nelson Jagamarra | M3 | 1989 | ||||||||
| 8 | [[File:M3 GR A Ken done 1.jpg | frameless]] | Ken Done | M3 Group A | 1989 | |||||||||
| 9 | [[File:Art Car no. 9, 535i Matazo Kayama, 1990.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | Matazo Kayama | 535i | 1990 | ||||||||
| 10 | [[File:BMWArtCar-Manrique.JPG | frameless | upright=1.0]] | César Manrique | 730i | 1990 | ||||||||
| 11 | [[File:Musée BMW 212.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | A. R. Penck | Z1 | 1991 | ||||||||
| 12 | [[File:BMWArtCar-Mahlangu.jpg | frameless]] | Esther Mahlangu | 525i | 1991 | |||||||||
| 13 | [[File:BMWArtCar-Chia2.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | Sandro Chia | M3 DTM Prototype | 1992 | ||||||||
| 14 | [[File:BMW Art Car no. 14, 850CSi David Hockney (1995).jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | David Hockney | 850CSi | 1995 | ||||||||
| 15 | [[File:BMW V12 LMR.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | Jenny Holzer | V12 LMR | 1999 | ||||||||
| 16 | Olafur Eliasson | H2R | 2007 | |||||||||||
| 17 | [[File:BMW M3 GT2 Art Car-Le Mans 2010.jpg | frameless | upright=1.0]] | last=Peterson | first=Andrew | title=Artist Jeff Koons to Create A New BMW Art Car | date=2 February 2010 | access-date=2010-02-03 | url=http://rumors.automobilemag.com/6603571/miscellaneous/artist-jeff-koons-to-create-a-new-bmw-art-car/index.html | magazine=Automobile | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100206110903/http://rumors.automobilemag.com/6603571/miscellaneous/artist-jeff-koons-to-create-a-new-bmw-art-car/index.html | archive-date=6 February 2010 }} | M3 GT2 | 2010 |
| 18 | frameless | upright=1.0 | John Baldessari | M6 GTLM | 2016 | |||||||||
| 19 | frameless | upright=1.0 | Cao Fei | M6 GT3** | 2017 | |||||||||
| 20 | frameless | upright=1.0 | Julie Mehretu | M Hybrid V8 | 2024 |
** Car shown in the BMW Museum, without the original digital lighting enhancements that were part of the art.
Miniatures
Since 2003, BMW has released the Art Cars (at the time, this encompassed the entire series) as 1:18 scale miniature diecast.
They are sold in limited edition by BMW dealers and shops with the name "museum edition". All of them have an elegant acrylic display and a grey base, iconic package with red box and an "art car" booklet inside. The first two to be released were Alexander Calder's BMW 3.0 CSL and Jenny Holzer's BMW V12 LMR. Initially 3000 copies each were to be produced with an MSRP of $125 (now $145) each. Nowadays there are 18 miniatures, but there are 20 Bmw art cars, simply of 2 there are no miniatures. Only the works of Olafur Eliasson and Cao Fei do not have official miniatures because they are conceptual works.
Public display
In 2009, the Art Cars began a North American tour, starting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from February 12–24. The second stop was in New York City from March 24 to April 6, in a special exhibit at Grand Central Terminal held in its Vanderbilt Hall. The Cars were exhibited in México, first in MARCO, Monterrey, and later in Guadalajara and Mexico City. In July 2012 a selection of the cars were presented by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in a Shoreditch car park as part of the London 2012 Festival, entitled Art Drive!.
Unofficial BMW Art Cars
In addition to the work commissioned by BMW, other artists have created unofficial BMW art cars. In 1979 racing driver Peter Gregg purchased a BMW M1 Procar and commissioned his friend Frank Stella to paint it for him; this car is the only BMW painted by an artist who was also part of BMW's own Art Car program. and was sold from the Guggenheim Museum to a BMW dealer in Long Island, New York in 2011. The car is part of Stella's "Polar Coordinates" series, created to commemorate Stella's friend Ronnie Peterson who had died in a racing incident at Monza in 1978. In 1987 Keith Haring painted a red BMW Z1 at Hans Mayer Gallery, Düsseldorf. In 1996 Artist Dennis Simon was commissioned to create a BMW Motorsport tribute on the flanks of a 1965 BMW 1800 Ti/SA for BMW's 80th birthday at the Monterey Historics in Laguna Seca, CA. In 2007, Portland's Museum of Contemporary Craft commissioned artist Tom Cramer to paint a 1977 BMW 320i for their grand opening at the DeSoto Building. In 2016, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville commissioned artist Christie Chandler to paint a BMW X6 for their annual awards gala at TPC Sawgrass.
References
References
- "Welcome Home BMW Art Cars". en.bmw-art-cars.de.
- Preece, R.J. (June 11, 2009). [http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Art-Design-Publicity-mag-Thomas-Girst-communicating-BMW-Art-Cars-1-1-2009 'Communicating BMW Art Cars: Interview with Thomas Girst.'] ''ADP/Sculpture'' magazine. Retrieved October 18, 2009
- (2007). "BMW V12 LMR - Jenny Holzer 1999 photo gallery". BMWDrives.com.
- "BMW Release Plans For 16th Art Car (press release)".
- Peterson, Andrew. (2 February 2010). "Artist Jeff Koons to Create A New BMW Art Car".
- Migliore, Greg. (2 June 2010). "New BMW Art Car, the 17th, revealed for Le Mans".
- [https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/30/13800406/exclusive-john-baldessari-on-designing-the-newest-bmw-art-car "Exclusive: John Baldessari on designing the newest BMW art car."] Tamara Warren. ''[[The Verge. Verge]].'' [[Vox Media. Vox]]. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-18.
- [http://artradarjournal.com/2017/06/17/cao-fei-creates-bmw-art-car-18/ "Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei creates BMW Art Car #18."] {{Webarchive. link. (2020-04-18 CA Xuan Mai Ardia. ''Art Radar.'' 17 June 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-18.)
- [http://www.worldcarfans.com/2030618.001/bmw-introduces-scale-models-of-art-cars 'BMW introduces scale models of art cars'] ''Worldcarfans.com''. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
- "Bmw Art Car Museum Edition -".
- Joseph, Noah. (February 12, 2009). [http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/12/bmws-art-cars-start-north-american-tour-in-los-angeles/ 'BMW's Art Cars start North American tour in Los Angeles'] ''Autoblog.com''. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
- link. (January 6, 2014)
- {{usurped
- Patton, Phil. (2011-05-09). "BMW M1, Painted by Frank Stella, Heading to Auction". [[The New York Times]].
- (2011-10-03). "Frank Stella's BMW Art Car Sells to Private Collector". Gallerist.
- (2011-11-03). "Stella Art Car To Go On Public Display At BMW Southampton". Hamptons Online.
- (2000). "Haring im Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst Aachen". kunstmarkt.com.
- (2007). "DeSoto Project.".
- (2019). "Tom Cramer's old-school influence as a new-school creator.".
- "Tom Bush Art Car set for debut".
- "Bio {{!".
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