BMW's Art Cars

In 1975 Herve Poulain, a racing enthusiast and art lover, persuaded sculptor and mobile artist Alexander Calder to paint German automaker BMW's entry at Le Mans. The car was pulled out part-way of the 24-hour French road race due to a defective prop shaft, but it has continued as a display piece - effectively one of Calder's last artworks before his death in 1976.

It also launched a tradition that BMW continues to this day, with the recent unveiling of the 19th addition to the BMW Art Car series.

Alexander Calder

The Alexander Calder 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL.

Alexander Calder

The Alexander Calder BMW Art Car.

Frank Stella

The second artist to decorate a BMW Art Car was painter and printmaker Frank Stella.

Frank Stella

Frank Stella's 1976 BMW 3.0 CSL featured a graph paper grid pattern overlaid onto the chassis' curves.

Roy Lichtenstein

In 1977 pop artist Roy Lichtenstein painted a BMW 320i, complete with the oversized Ben-Day dots characteristic of the artist's paintings of comic strip art.

Andy Warhol

The Andy Warhol BMW M1, from 1979, on the streets of Paris. "I have tried to give a vivid depiction of speed," Warhol said of his work, which he painted himself without the help of assistants. "If a car is really fast, all contours and colors will become blurred."

Andy Warhol

It took Andy Warhol 23 minutes to paint his BMW M1.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol's 1979 BMW M1.

Andy Warhol

A detail from Andy Warhol's 1979 BMW M1. It's now considered the most valuable car in BMW history.

Ernst Fuchs

Austrian painter Ernst Fuchs called his painted 1982 BMW 635 CSi a "Fire Fox on a Hare Hunt."

Ernst Fuchs

"I see a hare at night running across the autobahn and leaping over a burning car," Fuchs said. "It shows me its colors, I read them in its lines, in its contours, I hear its voice calling our emphatically and see that beautiful hare leaping through the flames of love, averting all fears."

Robert Rauschenberg

In 1986 painter and graphic artist Robert Rauschenberg painted a BMW 635 CSi using photographic techniques.

Robert Rauschenberg

The 1986 BMW Art Car by Robert Rauschenberg.

Michael Nelson Tjakamarra

An indigenous Australian painter, Michael Nelson Tjakamarra painted a 1989 BMW MS using motifs of Papunya art - seemingly geometric designs that incorporate images of nature and animals, for example.

Ken Done

This brightly-colored 1989 BMW M3 is typical of the work of Australian artist Ken Done. The car is adorned with parrots and parrot fish, representing both beauty and speed.

César Manrique

Artist and architect César Manrique adorned this 1990 BMW 730i with bright colors and graceful, sweeping lines.

Matazo Kayama

Matazo Kayama's 1990 BMW 535i incorporated both airbrushing techniques and the application of silver, gold and aluminum foil.

Matazo Kayama

While many Art Cars made it onto the race track, Kayama's was one designed expressly for exhibition purposes.

A.R. Penck

Abstract figures which owed something to artist A.R. Penck's long fascination with cave drawings were painted onto this 1991 BMW Z1.

A.R. Penck

Details from A.R. Penck's Art Car.

Esther Mahlangu

African artist Esther Mahlangu incorporated tribal designs onto this 1991 BMW 525i.

Esther Mahlangu

Esther Mahlangu was the first female artist commissioned for the BMW Art Car series.

David Hockney

Painter David Hockney decorated this 1995 BMW 850 CSi with a view of its interior workings and occupants. He painted a dachshund in the back seat, because his own dogs often rode in the car with him.

Sandro Chia

As a child Chinese artist Sandro Chia painted graffiti on cars, so it wasn't a stretch for him to be attracted to the surface of this 1992 BMW 3-Series Racing Prototype.

Sandro Chia

Chia said the surface of the car seemed to scream out, "Paint me! Paint me!"

Jenny Holzer

Phosphorescent colors and reflective foil allowed this 1999 BMW V12 LMR to take on the colors of its environment - the brilliant blue sky, the lights of the night - and reflect them back as text, thanks to American artist Jenny Holzer.

Jenny Holzer

Holzer (who grew up around automobiles, as the daughter of a car dealer) incorporated provocative statements onto the BMW's surface, such as: "Protect me from what I want," "Lack of charisma can be fatal," "You are so complex you don't respond to danger," and "What urge will save us now that sex won't?"

Olafur Eliasson

The sculptures and installation of art of Olafur Eliasson may have suggested that the Danish-Icelandic artist wouldn't take a predictable approach to designing an Art Car. Here (as photographed in an installation in Munich), Eliasson removed the exterior skin of a 2007 BMW H2R and replaced it with reflective layers of metal and steel mesh covered in ice. The hydrogen-powered car had set speed records, but the ultimate statement from its makeover perhaps was of technology's relationship with the environment and with climate change.

Jeff Koons

Pop artist Jeff Koons' dynamic 2010 BMW M3GT2 exudes energy and speed through its colorful lines, even when parked.

Jeff Koons

Koons said, "There is a lot of power under that hood and I want to let my ideas transcend with the car - it‟s really to connect with that power."

Jeff Koons

The car competed at Le Mans on June 12, 2010, but left the race after five hours owing to technical problems.

John Baldessari

The latest addition to the BMW Art Series series features the work of John Baldessari, a California-based conceptual artist who incorporates photography, text, mixed media and printmaking in his works.

John Baldessari

At 85, John Baldessari is towering figure in the art world - and not just because he's 6'7". The celebrated California conceptual artist has been called "a surrealist for the digital age."