The M6 GTLM art car done by John Baldessari was unveiled on the November 30 preview day for Art Basel in Miami Beach. The car will be on display throughout the Art Basel celebration, which runs from December 1 to 4.
The car is one of two new art cars commissioned by BMW. The second, another M6 GTLM, is being prepared by Chinese artist Cao Fei. It will be unveiled next summer.
Baldessari, a minimalist, used red, green, blue, and yellow, placing three dots on the car and a wedge shape on the hood, painting the rear spoiler, placing the word FAST on one side of the car and doing a rendering of the car on the other side.
He said, “I have done only one work in my life involving a car before, and that was an image of a car. So for the BMW Art Car project, I entered uncharted territory, not just in terms of the subject, but also moving from two- to three-dimensional art. A challenge I did enjoy! The ideas all came at once: for instance, the red dot on the roof, so you can see it from above, FAST on one side and a picture of the car on the other side. I like the ambiguity, having two-dimension and three-dimension at the same time. Considering the car as an icon of contemporary life, my concept turned out playfully satirical, but it also highlights some of the trademark ideas that I use. So you can say, the BMW Art Car is definitely a typical Baldessari and the fastest artwork I ever created!”
Like the first art car, Hervé Poulain’s CSL rendered by Alexander Calder and run at Le Mans in 1975, the new car will be raced. It will be one of the two M6 GTLMs run by BMW Team RLL in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January. BMW’s release reveals half of BMW’s GTLM lineup at Daytona; the car will be driven by Bill Auberlen, Alexander Sims, Augusto Farfus, and Bruno Spengler.—Brian S. Morgan
