BMW ART CAR COLLECTION 1975-2010

It might appear hard to believe for some people but there is an exhibition on called ‘Art Drive! The BMW Art Car Collection 1975-2010’.

BMW Art Drive

BMW Art Drive

Admission is free (but then for most of us it would have to be) and it features some impressive work by the likes of Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

It opens on 21 July and ends in two weeks. It’s being held in the NCP car park on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch, London, and brings together for the first time in the UK the collection of BMW cars transformed by 16 of the world’s leading international artists.

Initiated over 35 years ago, it features BMW cars by Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Ernst Fuchs, Robert Rauschenberg, M.J Nelson, Ken Done, Matazo Kayama, Cesar Manrique, Jeff Koons, A.R Penck, Esher Mahlangu, Sandro Chia, Jenny Holzer and David Hockney.

The BMW Art Car Collection started when French racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain invited his friend Alexander Calder to design a car that married artistic excellence to ‘an already perfect object’.  The end result was a racing car that would ultimately compete in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1975. And so the BMW Art Car was born.

Since then some of the greatest names in contemporary art have added to the collection creating a wide range of artistic interpretations.

For instance, Hockney’s 1995 Art Car paints the inside of the car on the outside, revealing everything from internal engine parts to a dog in the back.

The exhibition is part of the London 2012 Festival, a spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration.

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