Photo: BMW Group
While it's true that cars are first and foremost created to serve as transportation means, that doesn't take away their aesthetic appeal and design value. Many gearheads see cars as works of art, especially sleek, powerful, and fast sports cars with very sculpted bodies and sinuous lines. Art cars, on the other hand, are a very different breed that highlights the connection between real artists and vehicles that are used as blank canvases for artistic expression.
BMW's 20th Art Car will serve as a blank canvas for New York-based artist Julie Mehretu, the German manufacturer has announced this week. According to the company, the Ethiopian American artist was unanimously chosen by an esteemed panel of international museum directors and curators, and she will be given free rein to express her creativity on an M Hybrid V8 race car. The collaboration was announced during a special event at New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
And the good news is that people will get to see the next BMW Art Car commission live, as the sports car is set to debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2024.
The long-running BMW Art Car Project was started in 1975 when French racecar driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain commissioned his friend Alexander Calder, a well-known American artist at the time, to paint an automobile that Poulain himself would race in that year's edition of the Le Mans endurance race. The first Art Car was a BMW 3.0 CSL, and the series went on to include works by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and others.
Many of BMW's "rolling sculptures," as they are also called, have been created not only as exhibition pieces but also for competing in official races. This will also be the case with Mehretu's Art Car. Actually, next year's Le Mans will mark BMW's return to the prestigious race after a 25-year hiatus, and the M Hybrid V8 really has a chance at winning. The car is equipped with an electrified powertrain that delivers 640 hp (649 ps) and 479 ft-lbs (649.4 Nm) of torque, which makes it a worthy contender for the title.
Mehretu already has a 1/5 scale model of the car in her studio in New York and will begin creating a unique livery for it later this year. During the whole creative process, she will closely collaborate with the race car's designers to make sure her artwork doesn't affect its performance.
"I've loved cars for most of my life, as toys, as objects, as possibilities. It is from that space that I'm really excited to be working on the next BMW Art Car more than anything," Julie Mehretu has declared, adding that she really wants the car to win.
The artist is best known for her abstract paintings characterized by intricate juxtapositions of lines and shapes that frequently draw inspiration from technical drawings and building plans and for large-scale pieces, such as the eighty-foot-long mural people can admire in the lobby of the Goldman Sachs building in Manhattan.
Besides working on the body of BMW's 2024 Le Mans car, the artist will also organize art workshops across Africa in 2025.
And the good news is that people will get to see the next BMW Art Car commission live, as the sports car is set to debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2024.
The long-running BMW Art Car Project was started in 1975 when French racecar driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain commissioned his friend Alexander Calder, a well-known American artist at the time, to paint an automobile that Poulain himself would race in that year's edition of the Le Mans endurance race. The first Art Car was a BMW 3.0 CSL, and the series went on to include works by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and others.
Many of BMW's "rolling sculptures," as they are also called, have been created not only as exhibition pieces but also for competing in official races. This will also be the case with Mehretu's Art Car. Actually, next year's Le Mans will mark BMW's return to the prestigious race after a 25-year hiatus, and the M Hybrid V8 really has a chance at winning. The car is equipped with an electrified powertrain that delivers 640 hp (649 ps) and 479 ft-lbs (649.4 Nm) of torque, which makes it a worthy contender for the title.
Mehretu already has a 1/5 scale model of the car in her studio in New York and will begin creating a unique livery for it later this year. During the whole creative process, she will closely collaborate with the race car's designers to make sure her artwork doesn't affect its performance.
"I've loved cars for most of my life, as toys, as objects, as possibilities. It is from that space that I'm really excited to be working on the next BMW Art Car more than anything," Julie Mehretu has declared, adding that she really wants the car to win.
The artist is best known for her abstract paintings characterized by intricate juxtapositions of lines and shapes that frequently draw inspiration from technical drawings and building plans and for large-scale pieces, such as the eighty-foot-long mural people can admire in the lobby of the Goldman Sachs building in Manhattan.
Besides working on the body of BMW's 2024 Le Mans car, the artist will also organize art workshops across Africa in 2025.
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