I was very lucky this morning to have access to the setting up of BMW's ICA Art car exhibition in London . The city is buzzing with Olympic fever and a great place to be. ( This must be the most expensive BMW coffee meet ever with one car worth at least 200 million UK pounds!)
BMW press release on the Art Drive BMW Art Car Collection display:
ART DRIVE! The BMW Art Car Collection 1975-2010. Exhibition of Art Cars by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and David Hockney - On Show for First Time in the UK in East End Car Park.
20.07.2012
London. The ICA, in partnership with BMW, the Mayor of London and the London 2012 Festival, will take over a landmark car park in Shoreditch for two weeks only from 21 July to 4 August for a unique exhibition of the BMW ART CAR COLLECTIONon show for the first time in the UK. Admission is free.
The collection, initiated over 35 years ago, features BMW cars transformed by some of the world’s leading artists including: Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Ernst Fuchs, Robert Rauschenberg, M.J. Nelson, Ken Done, Matazo Kayama, César Manrique, Jeff Koons, A.R. Penck, Esther Mahlangu, Sandro Chia, Jenny Holzer and David Hockney.
ART DRIVE! THE BMW ART CAR COLLECTION will show the work of 16 international artists over six floors in the NCP Car Park on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. The project, which brings together BMW’s excellence in car design and the ICA’s passion for and commitment to art, will be a one-off opportunity for art and design lovers as well as car enthusiasts.
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. David 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. Rauschenberg incorporates photographic transfers of Ingres paintings while Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used the canvas of the car to portray the essence of speed.