50 years of BMW Artwork Vehicles: the 20 artists and their machines

It’s half a century since BMW pioneered the intersection between automotive design and advantageous artwork. The very first BMW Artwork Automobile was unveiled in 1975, the work of American sculptor Alexander Calder. The thought got here from French auctioneer and racing driver Hervé Poulai, who satisfied Jochen Neerpasch, the founder and head of BMW Motorsport, to let Calder create the livery of the BMW 3.0 CSL he was getting into into that yr’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Regardless of not ending, Poulain’s concept set the stage for extra collaborations, buoyed by a constructive public reception.

The BMW Artwork Vehicles at BMW’s Munich HQ

(Picture credit score: BMW)

The scheme was pushed by a collaboration with Leo Castelli, the pioneering New York artwork gallerist and supplier. Castelli’s contacts introduced Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol into the undertaking to create new liveries for Poulain’s subsequent drives at Le Mans. Then within the early Eighties, the Artwork Automobile programme opened up and invited artists to work on normal product fashions, earlier than returning to a racing focus in 1999. Since then, the BMW Artwork Automobile has been a dynamic expression of the corporate’s dedication to the humanities in all its kinds, ‘an ideal playground for artwork and design, know-how and innovation, motorsport and engineering’.

Seven of the twenty BMW Art Cars created over the last 50 years — Seven of the 20 BMW Artwork Vehicles created over the past 50 years

To have fun the scope and scale of this ongoing company dedication, BMW has launched archive imagery of the works in progress, in addition to introduced a worldwide celebratory programme of exhibitions and shows. The BMW Artwork Automobile World Tour will roll by means of 2025 and 2026, taking choose vehicles to auto exhibits and festivals, together with Artwork Basel Hong Kong, the Shanghai Auto Present, Artwork Basel and Up to date Istanbul. There may even be a significant show on the Louwman Museum in The Hague all through July and August 2025, that includes eight of the 20 vehicles.