Two of probably the most vital BMW Artwork Vehicles will seem collectively for the primary time in North America on the 74th Pebble Seaside Concours d’Magnificence®. Andy Warhol’s 1979 BMW M1 Group 4 and Julie Mehretu’s 2024 BMW M Hybrid V8 will headline the celebration of fifty years of the BMW Artwork Automobile program.
“We’re completely thrilled to have the ability to current two distinctive BMW Artwork Vehicles on the Pebble Seaside Concours d’Magnificence on the fiftieth Anniversary of the BMW Artwork Automobile initiative,” mentioned Tom Plucinsky, Head of BMW Basic USA. “We have now little doubt that the beautiful vistas of Pebble Seaside will present an exquisite backdrop for these two artistic endeavors by Andy Warhol and Julie Mehretu.”
Origins of the BMW Artwork Automobile Program
The BMW Artwork Automobile historical past started in 1975, when French racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain commissioned Alexander Calder to color a BMW 3.0 CSL. Calder’s creation wasn’t only a showpiece—it competed within the 24 Hours of Le Mans, setting the tone for each Artwork Automobile that adopted: a mix of artwork, design, engineering, and motorsport.
Since then, the collection has grown into a group of 20 “rolling sculptures” created by a few of the world’s most influential artists, together with Roy Lichtenstein, Jenny Holzer, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, Olafur Eliasson, John Baldessari, Cao Fei, and Julie Mehretu. Throughout 5 a long time, the vehicles have mirrored a variety of creative actions—from minimalism and pop artwork to magical realism, abstraction, idea artwork, and digital artwork.
The Artwork Automobile program has at all times been about greater than ornament. It’s a platform for artists to interpret velocity, motion, and know-how in their very own language, whereas celebrating BMW’s engineering and racing heritage.
Warhol’s BMW M1 Artwork Automobile No. 4 (1979)
Warhol’s M1 artwork automobile got here throughout a interval when the artist was experimenting with abstraction and gestural portray. In simply 28 minutes, he utilized greater than 13 kilos of polymer-based paint straight by hand, leaving seen brush strokes, drips, fingerprints, and scratches. “I tried to indicate velocity as a visible picture,” Warhol defined. “When an vehicle is admittedly touring quick, all of the strains and colours are reworked right into a blur.”
In 1979, Manfred Winkelhock, Hervé Poulain, and Marcel Mignot drove the automobile at Le Mans, ending second at school—a end result that underscored the Artwork Automobile ethos: a murals is also a aggressive race machine.
Julie Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8 Artwork Automobile No. 20 (2024)
Julie Mehretu, an Ethiopian-born, New York–primarily based artist, constructed her design on the foundations of her monumental portray “Everywhen” (2021–2023). She reworked the work into layered grids, neon-colored veils, and her signature black markings, then used 3D mapping to wrap the imagery across the BMW M Hybrid V8 endurance racer. The Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8 Artwork Automobile debuted on the Centre Pompidou in Paris earlier than participating within the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, with its design utilized in light-weight foiling to endure the calls for of a full day of racing.
BMW Celebrates 50 Years of the three Collection at Monterey
BMW may even mark the fiftieth anniversary of the three Collection at Monterey Automobile Week. On the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, the 1977 BMW 320i Turbo Group 5 pushed by David Hobbs will likely be on show, alongside the 2004 BMW Group PTG M3 GTR and the 2011 M3 GT ALMS. The BMW Automobile Membership of America will current examples from all seven generations of the three Collection on the Legends of the Autobahn.
