For the past 50 years BMW has collaborated with world-famous artists, providing halo cars as blank canvases for visionaries like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jenny Holzer, Cao Fei and Jeff Koons to emblazon with artistic liveries that are uniquely theirs in style, technique and representation. These iconic creations are known as BMW Art Cars.
In honouring the tradition, while also taking the Art Car concept into the future, the Bavarian firm unveiled its 20th moveable masterpiece at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in May, before rolling it out again – alongside many of its most famous predecessors – at Concorso d’Eleganza on the shores Lake Combo.
The M Hybrid V8, which marked BMW’s return to the open class at Le Mans this year after a 25 year hiatus, wore the stunning work of abstract American painter Julie Mehretu.
“The BMW Art Cars are an essential part of our global cultural commitment,” says BMW chairman, Oliver Zipse, speaking about Art Car number 20. “For almost 50 years, we have been collaborating with artists who are just as fascinated by mobility and design as they are by technology and motorsports. Julie Mehretu’s vision for a racing car is an extraordinarily strong contribution to our BMW Art Cars series.”
Mehretu used 3D mapping technology to visualise and apply her artwork to the functional contours of the M Hybrid V8 racer, using ‘foiling’ rather than paint. The elaborate foiling keeps weight down and allows the car to conquer Mulsanne Straight while travelling at eye-watering speeds.
“I don’t think of this car as something you would exhibit,” Mehretu proclaims, suggesting her creation is born to exist on the race track and in a gallery. “It’s a performative painting. My BMW Art Car was created in close collaboration with motorsport and engineering teams. It is only completed once the race is over.”
Her creative process when approaching a new piece, Mehretu explains, is never linear and the Art Car was no different.
“I have no idea what the painting will look like when I start,” she says. “It is a continually evolving process, and the multi-layered work emerges all by itself.”
Experience and immersion are critical parts of that process, which is why Mehretu insisted on experiencing a 24-hour endurance race for herself.
‘It was only after I attended the 24-hour race in Daytona last year that I realised how I could approach my interpretation of the BMW Art Car,” she says. “I watched the race, the drivers and the pit crew. I realised that this is about innovation, imagination and pushing the boundaries of what is possible.’
The final design came to Mehretu in her studio, as she pondered a concept she had just finished painting.
“The model of the new BMW Art Car was standing next to it, and the thought occurred to me: what if we tried to move the car through the painting?” she says. “What might the painting look like if the car were to drive through the work and be influenced by it – as if through a kind of portal?”
And so the 20th BMW Art Car was born.
Legacy envisioned
BMW has celebrated art through its race car liveries for half a century, in a time-honoured tradition that elegantly intertwines art and automotive culture – two worlds not far removed, but seldom occurring together so blatantly.
Let’s take a look at the stunning array of Art Cars, which together form a legacy envisioned.
#1 – 1975 – BMW 3.0 CSL – Alexander Calder
#2 – 1976 – BMW 3.0 CSL – Frank Stella
#3 – 1977 – BMW 320i Turbo – Roy Lichtenstein
#4 – 1979 – BMW M1 – Andy Warhol
#5 – 1982 – BMW 635 CSi – Ernst Fuchs
#6 – 1986 – BMW 635 CSi – Robert Rauschenberg
#7 – 1989 – BMW M3 Group A – Michael Jagamara Nelson
#8 – 1989 – BMW M3 Group A – Ken Done
#9 – 1990 – BMW 535i – Matazo Kayama
#10 – 1990 – BMW 730i – César Manrique
#11 – 1991 – BMW Z1 – A.R. Penck
#12 – 1991 – BMW 525i – Esther Mahlangu
#13 – 1992 – BMW M3 GTR – Sandro Chia
#14 – 1995 – BMW 850 CSi – David Hockney
#15 – 1999 – BMW V12 LMR – Jenny Holzer
#16 – 2007 – BMW H2R – Olafur Eliasson
#17 – 2010 – BMW M3 GT2 – Jeff Koons
#18 – 2017 – BMW M6 GT3 – Cao Fei
#19 – 2016 – BMW M6 GTLM – John Baldessari
#20 – 2024 – BMW M Hybrid V8 – Julie Mehretu
