BMW has presented its 20th Art Car, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Designed by New York-based artist Julie Mehretu, the piece aims to transform the BMW M Hybrid V8 racecar "into a performative work of art".
As is Art Car tradition, the Mehretu model is not just a static object: it's also destined to race at Le Mans, on June 15-16 this year.
"I don’t think of this car as something you would exhibit," says Mehretu. "I am thinking of it as something that will race in Le Mans.
"It’s a performative painting. My BMW Art Car was created in close collaboration with motorsport and engineering teams. The BMW Art Car is only completed once the race is over.”
The inspiration for the new Art Car came from Mehretu's 2021-23 painting "Everywhen" (currently being shown at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, but now gifted to the Museum of Modern Art in New York).
Its abstract visual form results from digitally altered photographs, which are superimposed in several layers of dot grids, neon-coloured veils and the black markings characteristic of Mehretu's work.
“In the studio where I had the model of the BMW M Hybrid V8 I was just sitting in front of the painting and I thought: what would happen if this car seemed to go through that painting and becomes affected by it,” says Mehretu.
“The idea was to make a remix, a mash-up of the painting. I kept seeing that painting kind of dripping into the car. Even the kidneys of the car inhaled the painting.”
The finished Art Car was realised with the help of 3D mapping, with which the motif was transferred to the contours of the vehicle.
Leading up to Le Mans, Julie Mehretu's BMW Art Car will make an appearance at the Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este in Lake Como.
As part of the exhibition for historic vehicles organised by the BMW Group and the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este, Mehretu will present the car herself.
It will be featured on the grounds of the Villa Erba together with the previous BMW Art Cars by Alexander Calder (1975), Frank Stella (1976), Roy Lichtenstein (1977), Andy Warhol (1979), Jenny Holzer (1999) and Jeff Koons (2010), which also all made their race debuts at Le Mans.
Renowned artists from all over the world have participated in the BMW Art Car programme since 1975.
The initiative came from the French racing driver and art lover Hervé Poulain, who, together with the then BMW Head of Motorsport Jochen Neerpasch, asked his artist friend Alexander Calder to paint a car. The result was a BMW 3.0 CSL, which competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975 and became a crowd favourite.
