Intro to BMW Art Cars (1975-Today)

A BMW racing driver from France, Herve Poulain, initiated the idea for an art car in 1975.  He inspired his friend, renowned artist, Alexander Calder, to transform Poulain’s BMW racing car into an artistic masterpiece.  The car, a BMW 3.0 CSL was a colorful phenomenon in its debut at the Le Mans 24 Hour race.  This art car was a mobile canvas –a mesmerizing sight to behold racing down the track.  Because of its widespread popularity, BMW began to endorse more artists to build its own Art Car Collection.
Today, there are seventeen BMW art cars.  They  have been displayed at museums around the world, including the Royal Academy in London, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.    No two cars are similar, for the artists have been commissioned from around the world, and it is easy to see how their background and culture affect their artistic persuasion.  Some of the most famous artists of our time (Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, and Roy Lichenstein to name a few) have contributed their time and talent into creating extraordinary BMWs, melding the world of art and motorsport together like never before.

Art Car No. 1 , BMW 3.0 CSL
Alexander Calder
Born in Pennsylvania, Calder went to school to become an engineer, but eventually turned his footsteps back to the heritage of his father and grandfather-that of a sculptor.  At age 28, he moved to Paris to further his knowledge and study of art.  He developed an individual style that favored bright, cheery colors and with his background in engineering, he produced moving sculptures.  His most famous work, entitled “Mobiles” was accredited with being the most innovative sculpture of the 20th century.  Asked to transform Poulain’s BMW into  a “rolling canvas”,  Calder painted the car with loud colors and broad, curving lines.  The artist personally watched his masterpiece race at the Le Mans race.

Art Car No. 2, BMW 3.0 CSL Coupe
Frank Stella
Taking a different approach from Alexander Calder’s BMW, Frank Stella, an artist from New York, painted the second BMW art car in 1976.  This artist began pursuing his artistic calling at age 14, attended Princeton to study history, and eventually wound up opening an art studio in New York where he was a teacher.  His BMW art creation was painted upon a BMW 3.0 CSL coupe.  Usually an artist known for his random style, in this project his artistic style changed to technical; in fact he painted his car completely black and white in a grid-like pattern resembling graph paper.  It has dotted lines as if the car as a whole was meant to be cut out and its parts reassembled into a completely new and abstract shape.

Art Car No. 3, BMW 320i
Roy Lichtenstein
This American artist painted his BMW 320i in 1977.  His description of his car is “painted lines as a road, pointing the way for the car.  The design also shows the scenery as it passes by.  Even the sky and sunlight are to be seen…you could list all the things a car experiences – the only difference is that this car mirrors all these things even before it takes to the road.”  Interestingly, this artist had a background in comic art, and it is expressed in his art car with the painted “speedlines” a tactic used in comics to give the idea of speed.  Another comic influence is his use of the “Benday dots”, oversized comic dots.  His artistic philosophy is that “art must be an element of everyday life – its themes and inspiration must come from the lives of ordinary people”.  His car is a synchrony of aerodynamics mirroring a landscape with a comic flair.

Art Car No. 4, BMW M1
Andy Warhol
BMW had the privilege of the Pop Art legend, Andy Warhol, to add his touch to the BMW art car line.   It is natural that he should paint a car, in that his studio more closely resembled a factory.  Famous for his Campbell Soup Cans in the sixties, he took on the car art project in 1977.  Unlike the other artists before him who painted a smaller  replica of the car and later had technicians replicate their work on the actual car, Warhol insisted on painting the physical M1 himself. Incredibly, it took him only twenty three minutes to paint the car.  To finish, he ran his fingers through the paint for good measure.  His explanation of his painting was “I tried to portray speed pictorially.  If a car is moving really quickly, all the lines and colors are blurred.”  When questioned as to his satisfaction with his work, he replied, “I love the car; it’s better than the work of art itself.”  This car, like the others, raced in the Le Mans race.  It placed sixth.

Art Car No. 5, BMW 635 CSi
Ernst Fuchs
Austrian painter Ernst Fuchs painted a 635 CSI BMW in 1982.  His inspiration for the car’s design came from a dream he had when he was only five years old.  ”In the painting, I gave expression to various experiences, fears, desires and implorations, but also to free artistic creation.  I call this car ‘Firefox on Harehunt’.  It represents a hare racing across a motorway at night and leaping over a burning car – the primeval fear and bold dream of surmounting a dimension in which we live.  It tells me its colors, I read them in its line and shape, I hear its speedy call and can already see the handsome hare leaping through flames of love, driving away fears.”  A dramatically colored car, it gives the feeling of speed even when sitting still.  Indeed, it is the flight of a hare in chase encompassed in the bodily form of a car.

Art Car No. 6, BMW 635 CSi
Robert Rauschenberg
An artist from Texas, Robert Rauschenberg, an artist recognized as one of the 20th century’s most influential artists–put a new spin on the BMW art cars.  He is known for being a pioneer of sophisticated technology known as the “Transfer Drawing Process”.  Instead of simply painting the car, he incorporated other famous images onto the car by transferring them using photographic methods.  Using several images, he created a collage on the car.

Art Car No. 7, BMW M3
Michael Nelson Jagamara
The seventh BMW art car, painted in 1989, has Aboriginal flavor.  Resplendently painted representing Austrailian mythology, this artist transforms his BMW M3 into a canvas that preserves his family heritage and culture.  Born around 1946, Jagamara grew up in the Central Austrailian bush.  He remembers being frightened and hiding from the first white man he saw.
On his art car the geometric painted shapes may look abstract, but on closer inspection, the viewer can see kangaroos and emus.  In fact this style of painting is known as Papunya, recognizable by its birdseye view of landscapes.  They are modern cave paintings in a sense, embodying both religious and mythical scenes from the culture’s past.

Art Car No. 8, BMW M3
Ken Done
In 1989, Austrailian artist Ken Done used the exotic colors of parrot fish to decorate his BMW M3.  In his opinion, the parrot fish, like the BMW, represent both speed and beauty.  The front of the car displays yellows and reds, but fades drastically to darker purples, blues and blacks towards the rear.  This artist was born in 1940 and is recognized for his expertise in design and his artwork’s Austrailian influence.

Art Car No. 9, BMW 535i
Matazo Kayama
One of Japan’s most recognized artists, Matazo Kayama was commissioned in 1990 to design the BMW art car number nine.  Completely unique from any other BMW art car to date, Kayama’s 535i has a heavy Japanese influence.  He used his common theme of “Snow, Moon and Flowers”  using an airbrush.  He used two classical Japanese techniques, “Kirigane” or metal-cutting and “Arare” or foil-cutting.  He used pieces of gold, silver and aluminum foil and carefully added them to the bodywork.  His work resulted in a fabulously elegant piece of art.

Art Car No. 10, BMW 730i
Cesar Manrique
Born in Spain, Cesar Manrique studied at the art school San Fernando for five years.  He traveled to Houston and New York with renowned artist Nelson Rockefeller for the “Catherine Viviano” gallery.  In his life he also contributed to preserving the beauty of Lanzanarote by voting against high-rise buildings.  Those buildings that were allowed were required to maintain certain traditional colors on their exterior.  He began the BMW art car in 1990, taking this project very seriously for he viewed the car as an indispensable part of our daily life.  He wanted to “combine the notions of speed and aerodynamics with the concept of aesthetic appeal in one object.”  The result suggests a piece of art that conveys feelings of effortless gliding.

Art Car No. 11, BMW Z1
A. R. Penck
Ralf Winkler, or A.R. Penck, was born in East Germany in the late 1930′s.  He studied with his colleagues a form of art known as neo-expressionist.  He and his fellow artist friends were kept under close observation by the secret police.  Their art appeared in shows in the 1970′s, but it was not until the eighties that Penck received worldwide recognition for his distinctly primitive pieces of art.  Although more known for his paintings, he also sculpted using common materials such as wood, cardboard boxes, masking tape, tin cans and wire.
In 1991 he undertook the task of the eleventh BMW art car.  Desirous of contrasting the modern look of the car with something decidedly non-modern, Penck painted sign language symbols on the car, creating a cave-painting effect.  But the signs are not meant for merely aesthetic appeal but are in fact intended to be decoded by the observer.

Art Car No. 12, BMW 525i
Esther Mahlangu
The twelfth art car, painted in 1991 by Esther Mahlangu is unique for a couple of reasons.  First of all, it is the first art car to be painted by a woman, secondly, it is the first art car of African design.  Esther Mahlangu began painting when she was only ten years old, taught and encouraged by her mother and grandmother.  Growing up in South Africa, she worked against all odds to travel the world and present her art.  Of her love of art she says,”When I am painting my heart is very wide, it reaches out.  It makes me feel very, very happy.”
When presented with the 525i, she felt she needed to practice first on another BMW to adjust herself to the different surface medium.  Upon painting a door of a “trial” BMW, she then undertook her own 525i, transforming the car into a piece of art that, like Penck’s work, suggests a clash against the car’s modernism.  Covered with tribal inspired designs, her 525i represents the colors, traditions and handed-down art form of her culture.

Art Car No. 13, BMW3 Series Racecar
Sandro Chia
In 1992, an Italian artist undertook the feat of the 13th BMW art car.  Born in Florence in 1946, Sandro Chia graffitied cars as a child.   He claims that his BMW 3 series called out to him, “Paint me, paint me!”  Recognizing that cars are a much sought-after item in our society, and that, “All eyes are upon it.  People look closely at cars,” influenced Chia to put people’s images on the cars to reflect the faces of the observers.  This artist is known for being an influential member of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, a movement that was a part of the Neo-Expressionist movement in the eighties.

Art Car No. 14, BMW 850 CSi
David Hockney
A British artist based in Los Angeles, David Hockney was born in 1937 and has been considered one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.  He took great thought in considering how to paint the 14th BMW art car.  He admits looking at the other art cars.  ”BMW gave me the model and I kept looking at it and looking at it.”  He eventually surmised,”In the end, I thought probably it would be good to perhaps show the car so you could be looking inside it.” A genius masterpiece was the result.  On the side of the car, you can see the driver painted with the accelerator pedal.  And on the hood of the car is an abstract representation of the engine.  He also included plenty of green to reflect the passing landscape “because traveling around in a car means experiencing landscapes.”

Art Car No. 15, BMW V12 LMR
Jenny Holzer
Arguably the most simple design of the art cars, Jenny Holzer’s BMW stands out for what it says “Protect Me From What I Want” is painted in large letters on the body of the car.  An American artist born in 1950 in Ohio, Jenny Holzer is known as a conceptual artist.  She studied art at several schools including Ohio University, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  In the beginning she was an abstract artist, but upon moving to New York in 1977, she began exploring the world of art text.  The text on the BMW is no ordinary text; it is composed of reflective metal foil.  Some have described the text as having a magical effect.  This car was designed to intimidate, and takes its art car heritage right back where it started from, the Le Mans race.

Art Car No. 16, BMW H2R
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson was born in Denmark in 1967.  He is known for his blend of technology and art in ingenious ways. He runs his own lab where a team of architects, engineers, craftsmen and assistants work to conceptualize and produce large-scale projects, commissions and sculptures.  He is perhaps most famous for his Weather project, an enormous artificial sun created using 200  yellow lamps, mirrors and mist.  It was displayed inside the Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern, drawing over 2 million visitors in its 5-month show.  Many comment that observing his work is an experience.  Taking upon BMW’s hydrogen powered car as the sixteenth art car, Eliasson creates an optical experience like none other.  First he constructed the metal body work of the car using reflective metal, then carefully layered ice on the surface of the metal.  His work demonstrates the unlikely relationship between ice, a natural phenomena, and a man-made car.  He wished to display in an artistic manner how the new BMW hydrogen powered car is compatible with our environment and is our future in renewable energy.

Art Car No. 17, BMW Z4
Robin Rhode
Born in 1976, Robin Rhode was born in New England, but now pursues his art in Germany.  His idea for the seventeenth BMW art car was for the car to not just be a model, but to actively create art itself, by being the brush on the canvas.  ”This work is an expression of painting in action – my hope is to communicate the power and thrill inherent in the creation of art.  For me, the use of an untraditional paintbrush like a high performance car is a great way to investigate the relationship between emotion, technology and industrial creativity.”  Although the patterns of paint that the Z4 draws on the canvas may appear random, they are not.  Rhode precisely planned each movement of the car to create the perfect “paint drive”.  Remote controlled nozzles were carefully inserted anterior to each tire, spraying paint in a carefully controlled manner. In fact, when switching colors, new tires were changed out to avoid mixing paints, creating an arduous process but an incredible end-result.  Rhode explains, “The tracks left by the tires combine the two-dimensional plane of the picture with the three-dimensional space of the actual driving experience.”

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