The BMW Art Car Project was introduced by the French racecar driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain, who wanted to invite an artist to create a canvas on an automobile.

In 1975, Poulain commissioned American artist and friend Alexander Calder to paint the first BMW Art Car. This first example would be a BMW 3.0 CSL which Poulain himself would race in the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.

Since Calder's work of art, many other renowned artists throughout the world have created BMW Art Cars, including David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol. To date, a total of 20 BMW Art Cars, based on both racing and regular production vehicles, have been created. Frank Stella also made one unofficial art car at the behest of race car driver Peter Gregg. The most recent artist to the join BMW Art Car program is Julie Mehretu in 2024 with her BMW M Hybrid V8. Artists for the BMW Art Car Project are chosen by a panel of international judges.

According to Thomas Girst, who has been in charge of the BMW Art Cars project since 2004, the purpose of the project has changed over time: "In the beginning the cars were raced. There wasn't much of a public relations effort around them... Since then, some of the Art Cars have been used in advertisements to show that BMW is a player in the arts. With the Eliason work, part of what we are doing is raising awareness of alternative and renewable energy sources."Preece, R.J. (June 11, 2009). 'Communicating BMW Art Cars: Interview with Thomas Girst.' ADP/Sculpture magazine. Retrieved October 18, 2009

For the 50th birthday of the BMW Art Car Project in 2025, a world tour has been scheduled that will take the art cars to various museums and events around the world.

BMW Art Cars

No. Photo Artist Model Year1 Alexander Calder 3.0 CSL 19752 Frank Stella 3.0 CSL 19763 Roy Lichtenstein 320 19774 Andy Warhol M1 Group 4 19795 Ernst Fuchs 635 CSi 19826 Robert Rauschenberg 635 CSi 19867 Michael Nelson Jagamarra M3 19898 Ken Done M3 Group A 19899 Matazo Kayama 535i 199010 César Manrique 730i 199011 A. R. Penck Z1 199112 Esther Mahlangu 525i 199113 Sandro Chia M3 DTM Prototype 199214 David Hockney 850CSi 199515 Jenny Holzer V12 LMR 199916 Olafur Eliasson H2R 200717 Jeff Koons M3 GT2 2010 18 John Baldessari"Exclusive: John Baldessari on designing the newest BMW art car." Tamara Warren. Verge. Vox. 30 November 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-18. M6 GTLM 2016 19 Cao Fei"Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei creates BMW Art Car #18." CA Xuan Mai Ardia. Art Radar. 17 June 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-18. M6 GT3** 201720Julie MehretuM Hybrid V82024

** Car shown in the BMW Museum, without the original digital lighting enhancements that were part of the art.

Miniatures Since 2003, BMW has released the Art Cars (at the time, this encompassed the entire series) as 1:18 scale miniature diecast.

They are sold in limited edition by BMW dealers and shops with the name "museum edition". All of them have an elegant acrylic display and a grey base, iconic package with red box and an "art car" booklet inside. The first two to be released were Alexander Calder's BMW 3.0 CSL and Jenny Holzer's BMW V12 LMR. Initially 3000 copies each were to be produced with an MSRP of $125 (now $145) each.'BMW introduces scale models of art cars' Worldcarfans.com. Retrieved June 18, 2009. Nowadays there are 18 miniatures, but there are 20 Bmw art cars, simply of 2 there are no miniatures. Only the works of Olafur Eliasson and Cao Fei do not have official miniatures because they are conceptual works.

Public display In 2009, the Art Cars began a North American tour, starting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from February 12–24. The second stop was in New York City from March 24 to April 6, in a special exhibit at Grand Central Terminal held in its Vanderbilt Hall.Joseph, Noah. (February 12, 2009). 'BMW's Art Cars start North American tour in Los Angeles' Autoblog.com. Retrieved June 18, 2009. The Cars were exhibited in México, first in MARCO, Monterrey, and later in Guadalajara and Mexico City.'La colección de automóviles artísticos BMW Art Cars llega a México (in Spanish)' Retrieved June 5, 2009. In July 2012 a selection of the cars were presented by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in a Shoreditch car park as part of the London 2012 Festival, entitled Art Drive!.

2025 Cars at the Capital Unloading Incident On September 17, 2025 a delivery driver for Reliable Carriers Inc was pinned under and killed by the Andy Warhol M1 Group 4 Art Car when a winch broke whilst unloading the car from a flatbed. The car was to be featured on Washington, DC's National Mall as part of the "Cars at the Capital", an annual event held by Hagerty where the car added to that years National Historic Vehicle Register is displayed in public for a week. The event was canceled following the incident.

Unofficial BMW Art Cars In addition to the work commissioned by BMW, other artists have created unofficial BMW art cars. In 1979 racing driver Peter Gregg purchased a BMW M1 Procar and commissioned his friend Frank Stella to paint it for him; this car is the only BMW painted by an artist who was also part of BMW's own Art Car program. and was sold from the Guggenheim Museum to a BMW dealer in Long Island, New York in 2011. The car is part of Stella's "Polar Coordinates" series, created to commemorate Stella's friend Ronnie Peterson who had died in a racing incident at Monza in 1978. In 1990 Keith Haring painted a red BMW Z1 at Hans Mayer Gallery, Düsseldorf. In 1996 Artist Dennis Simon was commissioned to create a BMW Motorsport tribute on the flanks of a 1965 BMW 1800 Ti/SA for BMW's 80th birthday at the Monterey Historics in Laguna Seca, CA. In 2007, Portland's Museum of Contemporary Craft commissioned artist Tom Cramer to paint a 1977 BMW 320i for their grand opening at the DeSoto Building. In 2016, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville commissioned artist Christie Chandler to paint a BMW X6 for their annual awards gala at TPC Sawgrass.

See also Art car PaykanArtCar, another car related art project

References

External links

An overview of BMW Art Cars with videos and a lot of information.