BMW Art Car Collection

[Jeroen]

Promised to post a few of them ages ago, well here's a start!

BMW Art Car 3.0 CSL E9 Frank Stella 1975



BMW Art Car 3.0 CSL E9 Alexander Calder 1976





BMW Art Car M1 E26 Andy Warhol 1979

[uwbuurman]

Never realy had a thing for art cars. Ok , they're one of a kind, but apart from that, not my cup of thea

[Jeroen]

At first I didn't find them that special either, and I definitely don't like them all. But like the Alexander Calder CSL, love the colors and it is in line with the liveries we used to see back then anyway like for example with the Slotemaker CSL (see below). The Warhol car really is a Warhol painting and I do love the lines on the Roy Lichtenstein E21. The ones I really dislike are the more modern ones like the Manrique E32.

[arshad76]

Nice, but where is the E3?

[Jeroen]

What, the one outside the Buchheim Museum of Fantasy in Germany?



Or the Dexter Brown 3.3Li? Not an official BMW Art Car but still, a known example. I wonder if it's still in the UK!





I haven't seen the E21 by Roy Lichtenstein in the flesh yet, that's one I'd like to see one day, and take photos of course!

[arshad76]

Thank you. I've never seen the octopus style one before. And I didn't realise the Dexter Brown wasn't officially one. I love that car, I think Mark from the forum could have picked it up for peanuts a few years ago!

[Jeroen]

There were more stories about Art Cars being for sale cheap at some point and they're not all owned by BMW AG either.

In total there were 17 pcs (as per today) made as the official Art Car Collection. Odd one out: what's called #18 sometimes, the Z4 used by Robin Rhode. And there is the explanation: he did not use the car to paint on, but he used it to make a painting (I've posted it before but see below).

The 17 official ones are listed here: http://en.bmw-art-cars.de

[luke]

At first I didn't find them that special either. The ones I really dislike are the more modern ones like the Manrique E32.

Looking through them all, I have to agree - the only modern one I like is the Koons one (which really harks back to the early ones, using bright colours and trying to create a sense of speed).

The Calder one is probably my favourite.