BMW has nominated two prominent artists to create the eighteenth and nineteenth art cars in a series that began in 1975.
Chinese artist Cao Fei and American artist John Baldessari will each create an M6 GT3 art car in 2016. Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, made the announcement at a reception at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City on November 19.
The artists were present along with a host of luminaries, among them Hervé Poulain of France, who began the series in 1975 when he asked Alexander Calder to paint his 3.0 CSL. Poulain raced the car at Le Mans that year; it was on display at the Guggenheim event.
Poulain’s CSL attracted widespread attention, and BMW seized the opportunity. Over the course of 40 years BMW has commissioned artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, and many others to create art cars. The most recent car in the series was the M3 GT2 that Jeff Koons created in 2010. The Koons art car, raced at Le Mans that year, was the seventeenth in the series. All of the art cars can be seen here.
BMW motorsport director Jens Marquardt was on hand to introduce the M6 GT3 to the attendees at the museum. He noted that the art cars will be raced in 2017, but he did not indicate where or in which series the two M6 GT3s would take to the track.
The impressive gala at the Guggenheim capped 40 years of art cars and helped set the stage for BMW’s 100th anniversary. If the event at the museum was any indication of things to come, 2016 will be a year of celebrating in style.—Brian S. Morgan
(M6 GT3, Calder CSL, and artists John Baldessari and Cao Fei. Brian Morgan photos)
