The Ultimate Exhibition: BMW Art Cars Return to New York

[Jonathan Spira]

Four of five revisit Manhattan

Many think of their BMWs as works of art, but a handful of BMWs—sixteen, to be exact—have been exhibited in the world’s leading museums and galleries, including the Louvre.

Let the exhibit begin: Artist Robin Rhode (second from left) is joined by filmmaker Jake Scott, BMW NA’s Jack Pitney, and BMW AG Cultural Communications spokesman Thomas Girst on Rhode's painting.

Since 1975, BMWs have served as canvases for contemporary artists Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg, among others, bringing together artistic and technological ingenuity.

The BMW Art Cars were first exhibited in the United States in 1986 at the BMW Gallery at 320 Park Avenue in a show called BMW And Five American Artists, and again in 1990 at the same venue. (With 7,000 square feet of exhibit space, the BMW Gallery at 320 Park Avenue was established in the 1980s as a North American beachhead for the BMW Museum. By 1991, it had been converted into a showroom, and it closed in 1998 when BMW consolidated dealership operations in the city.)

The Z4 serves as a paint brush.

Today, four of those five original Art Cars returned to New York (Alexander Calder’s car, which was also the first Art Car, is not part of the exhibit) at an exhibit at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The cars are accompanied by a 30-by-40-foot canvas by Robin Rhode, a South African artist presently living in Berlin, who used a new (E89) Z4 roadster equipped with paint dispensers behind its wheels to create “Expression Of Joy,” a unique and contemporary painting, by driving around on its surface; the painted surface was then disassembled into panels which can be reassembled in various ways. Some were used as the floor for the launch of the new Z4 in Spain, while others were hung on the wall of the restaurant at that launch.

The artists who created the Art Cars—as well as Rhode, who controlled the Z4 remotely as it released paint onto the canvas—felt close to their projects. “This car is the fulfillment of my dream,” commented Rauschenberg at the time. Warhol, known for pop art, said of his M1, “I adore the car. It’s much better than a work of art.”

Calder was persuaded by a friend, Hervé Poulain, a French race-car driver and auctioneer, to create the first Art Car, a 3.0 CSL that Poulain drove at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1976. Another 3.0CSL that was at that race was then painted by Frank Stella, who is a racing enthusiast. And Roy Lichtenstein wanted to use “painted lines as a road, paving the way for the car” and also incorporated the scenery that would be passed along the way.

On a somewhat personal note, I was happy to welcome the cars back to New York as I had seen them several times in the course of their first two visits. Their current visit is through April 6 along with “Expression Of Joy” at Grand Central Terminal.—Jonathan Spira

Frank Stella, like Alexander Calder, had a 3.0CSL as his canvas. Roy Lichtenstein painted a 320i Group 5 racing version. Andy Warhol painted the M1 by hand—literally. Robert Rauschenberg’s Art Car started as a 635Csi.