BMW Art Cars

Legendary automobiles, designed by artists

In Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's lithograph "The Motorist," a car races across the picture twelve years after the first drive of the Benz Patent Motor Car Number 1 in July 1886. At the beginning of the 20th century, La 628-E8 was published, a novel with the car number of its author Octave Mirbeau in the title. In his Futurist Manifesto, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti values the beauty of the roar and the speed of a racing car over the aesthetics of the Nike of Samothrace. Artists have been exploring the automobile since its invention.

The BMW Art Cars play a central role in this: Alexander Calder's BMW 3.0 CSL was the first in a series launched in 1975 by Hervé Poulain, a lover of motor racing and works of art, and BMW Motorsport Director Jochen Neerpasch. Since then, 20 artists have designed BMW models, with many "rolling sculptures" proving their worth not only in museums but also on the Le Mans race track.

With contributions from: John Baldessari, Alexander Calder, Sandro Chia, Ken Done, Olafur Eliasson, Cao Fei, Ernst Fuchs, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Michael Jagamara Nelson, Matazo Kayama, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Esther Mahlangu, César Manrique, Julie Mehretu, A.R. Penck, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol and others.