BMW V12 LMR

The American concept artist, Jenny Holzer, has covered the 15th Art Car, a BMW V12 LMR, with surprising messages - messages which she says "will probably never lose their relevance".
The expression of her concept is based on traditional features, colours and graphics of the racing car design. Chrome letters made of reflecting metal foil, outlined with phosphorescent colour, give the text an almost magic light effect. What is crucial for the perception of her word art is the context in which it is presented. "Protect me from what I want" - seen against the backdrop of the most spectacular car race in the world, with its battle for places and prestige, the word artist's plea for survival gains a whole new meaning. "You are so complex you don't respond to danger" - a provocation that could not have been put better when referring to the world of motor racing. Jenny Holzer's V12 LMR takes the BMW Art Car idea back to its roots: Le Mans.

BMW 850 Csi

"BMW gave me the model of the car and I kept looking at it and looking at it", says David Hockney on the creation process of his BMW Art Car.
"And then, I must admit, I also looked at the other Art Cars. In the end I thought, probably it would be good to perhaps show the car so you could be looking inside it. "To turn his idea into reality, Hockney took several months and allowed the inside of the BMW 850 CSi to be outwardly visible. Stylized intake manifolds of the engine appear on the hood, and the silhouette of the driver can be seen on the door. And you don't just see the inside of the car, but also excerpts of an abstract landscape. Because "traveling around in a car means experiencing landscapes", says Hockney, "which is one of the reasons why I chose green as a color."

BMW Series 3 Racer

"Paint me, paint me!" these are the words the surface of the BMW called to him, said Sandro Chia on his first meeting with the prototype of a 3 Series racing touring car.
So he painted faces and a sea of vivid colors until the bodywork of the car was completely covered." The automobile is a sought-after possession in society", reflected Chia when he had finished his work. "All eyes are upon it. People look closely at cars. This car reflects their gaze." The design of the 13th BMW Art Car was not Chia's first artistic adventure with an automobile: as a child, he drew graffiti on cars.

BMW Z1

For A.R. Penck, the BMW Z1 was already a "work of art", in which the creativity and fantasy of the engineer and designer were reflected.
An automobile then which simultaneously lives up to the name Art Car in several senses. And it was from the technical design of the Z1 that Penck drew his inspiration for his work. The artist set the modern appearance of the car in contrast with the sign language, which in its simplicity recalls prehistoric cave paintings. However, it is at the same time a challenge to the observer, as the apparently straightforward symbols, evolved by a long process of abstraction, are in fact ciphers to be decoded.

BMW 525i

"My art has evolved from the tribal tradition of decorating our homes", said the South African painter Esther Mahlangu of her work.
With the painting of the BMW 525i, she wanted to link this handed-down art form to the modern appearance of the automobile. A challenge that Mahlangu mastered outstandingly with the creation of the first African Art Car.
In order to get a feeling for the completely new medium, the artist first of all painted the door of another BMW, before she ventured to create "her" Art Car. Within a week, she transformed the 5 Series saloon into a masterpiece of African Ndebele art - and established herself as the first woman in the list of international Art Car artists.

BMW 730i

César Manrique had a clear point of view on the design of the BMW 730i: in his eyes, the automobile is an indispensable feature of daily life; it greatly influences the way we see the world around us.
It's no surprise, then, that the artistic examination of the car suggested itself to him. When designing the car, Manrique particularly wanted to "combine the notions of speed and aerodynamics with the concept of aesthetic appeal in one object." And he succeeded: glowing colors and broad, sweeping strokes which blend into the outlines of the car are suggestive of effortless gliding and graceful movement.

BMW 535i

In the design of the BMW 535i, Matazo Kayama wanted on the one hand to express his fascination with BMW technology and on the other evoke vivid associations with modern Japan.
He reverted to his earlier theme "Snow, Moon and Flowers", but painted it in a totally new way using an airbrush.To highlight the contrast and to emphasize the elegant quality of the car, Kayama sprayed fine blue shadows on parts of the silver bodywork and then used classical Japanese techniques in the second phase such as "Kirigane" (metal cutting) and "Arare" (foil impression). He cut out small pieces of silver, gold and aluminum foil individually and transferred them to the bodywork.
The result: Kayama's Art Car does not just reflect timeless aesthetics but at the same time extraordinary elegance.

BMW M3

After seven days of tireless work, the Australian artist, Michael Jagamara Nelson, transformed "his" black BMW M3 from the Motorsport section of BMW Australia into a masterpiece of Papunya art.
A draft whose geometric shapes appear deceptively abstract: those familiar with Australian mythology will recognize kangaroos or emus. Papunya paintings, like those of Michael Jagamara Nelson, can be understood as aerial views of landscapes. They feature diverse forms symbolizing water, caves, men and animals - and simultaneously embody religious myths ("dreamings") which have been handed down from one Aboriginal generation to the next in the form of rock and cave paintings for thousands of years.

BMW M3

Ken Done had definite ideas from the very first moment as to how to decorate the BMW M3 he was given by the Australian BMW Motorsport department.
On the one hand, it was to express something of the fascination which this high-performance vehicle held for him. On the other, it had to be typically Australian and reflect the vitality of his home continent. Done therefore decided to go for exotic colors and paint parrots and parrot fish. Animals that in his eyes particularly share two characteristics with the BMW M3: beauty and speed. The result is as appealing as it is original: Done's Art Car symbolizes both immense dynamism and mysterious exoticism at the same time.

BMW 635 Csi

The BMW 635 CSi designed by Robert Rauschenberg was the first Art Car in series production. But that is not all that distinguishes it from the previous works of art.
Rauschenberg's design was also unusual: firstly, he used, in part, well-known works of art, such as Bronzino's "Man of the World" finished in 1535, and a work by the French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Rauschenberg worked these pieces, and his own photographs of trees and swamp grass, using photographic techniques and then projected them onto the bodywork of the car. For the first time, even the hub caps were included in the design, on which are depicted photos of antique plates.

BMW 635 CSi

The BMW 635 CSi was in no way a formal restraint for Ernst Fuchs, but exclusively a projection surface for his own imagination.
On the subject of his work, he says: "In the painting, I gave expression to various experiences, fears, desires and implorations, but also to free artistic creation. I call this car 'Firefox on Harehunt'. It represents a hare racing across a motorway at night and leaping over a burning car the - primeval fear and bold dream of surmounting a dimension in which we live. It tells me its colors, I read them in its lines and shape, I hear its speedy call and can already see the handsome hare leaping through flames of love, driving away fears."

BMW M1

For anybody who declares soup cans to be works of art or suggests closing a whole department store and keeping it as a museum, considering a car as a rolling work of art is more typical than unusual.
Whereas the other artists first of all painted their pattern on a scaled-down model and then had this transferred to the car by assistants, the Pop Art legend Andy Warhol painted the 470 hp BMW M1 himself from start to finish.
On the subject of his sweeping brush and finger strokes, he said: "I tried to portray speed pictorially. If a car is moving really quickly, all the lines and colors are blurred." Warhol's rolling work of art had its first and only race outing at the 24-hour race at Le Mans in 1979, when it was sixth in the overall ranking.

BMW 320i

"I wanted to use painted lines as a road, pointing the way for the car", says Roy Lichtenstein of his portrayal of the BMW 320i. "The design also shows the scenery through which the car has driven. You could call it a list of all the things a car experiences - the only difference is that this car mirrors all these things even before it takes to the road."
And if you look more closely at Lichtenstein's Art Car, you will recognize reflections of a passing landscape, in which the long stretches of color give an impression of speed. Also noticeable are the typical "Benday dots" - oversized dots which recall Lichtenstein's world-famous comic-strip pictures. In the same year, his BMW Art Car won second place in its class at the 24-hour race at Le Mans.

BMW 3.0 CSL

"The pattern should be regarded as agreeable decoration", says Frank Stella of the black and white square grid with which he covered the BMW 3.0 CSL. A pattern which has an evenness and precision reminiscent of oversized graph paper.
Within the grid, numerous lines run across the whole bodywork and leave the car looking like one great pattern. While working on his draft version, Stella disassociated himself from his usual random style of painting and sought inspiration from the technical aura of the sports coupé. The BMW 3.0 CSL took part in the 24-hour race at Le Mans - for Stella, a passionate fan of motor racing, it was a very special premiere for his new work of art.

BMW 3.0 CSL

The BMW 3.0 CSL, with which Alexander Calder laid the foundations of the Art Car Collection in 1975, was also one of the last works he produced before his death.
And it was an extraordinarily interesting work too: as a sculptor, Calder broke free from the formal restraints imposed by the sports car and drew his own unique artistic lines.
Like his sculptures and mobiles (so named by the French Dada artist Marcel Duchamp), he used powerful colors on attractive curving expanses, which spread liberally over the roof, hood and wings.
Calder's artwork was on show the very same year at the 24-hour race at Le Mans, an event which the artist attended.
Alexander Calder died November 11, 1976, in New York City, just after supervising the installation of his largest retrospective exhibition, at the Whitney Museum of American Art.