A painting doesn’t need to go anywhere. A sculpture doesn’t need to move. A BMW Art Car? It doesn’t just sit in a gallery – it races at Le Mans.
For 50 years, the BMW Art Cars have brought together the spirit of BMW’s “Sheer Driving Pleasure,” the precision of motorsport and the freedom of creative expression. To mark this historic milestone, BMW brought all 20 Art Cars together for an exhibition at BMW Welt in Munich, Germany.
The BMW Art Cars have always felt like a myth. You’ve probably heard of them. Maybe you’ve seen pictures online. Seeing one in person is certainly a rare occasion. But to see all 20 of them in one setting? This might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. There was no argument – I had to check out the exhibition while it was open between late July and August.
My sense of awe only grew the longer I spent with the cars. There’s the incredible detail of Michael Jagamara Nelson’s E30 M3 Group A, where what initially looks like a fine abstract pattern reveals itself as the Australian landscape filled with shapes and figures.
Then there’s Andy Warhol’s famous M1 Procar, whose thick, hand-painted surface looks almost tactile enough to reach out and touch.
Matazo Kayama’s E34 535i offers something completely different: delicate blue airbrushing combined with wafer-thin pieces of silver, gold and aluminium leaf, creating an almost luminous contrast against the car’s bodywork.
These are cars you could stare at for hours. No two BMW Art Cars are alike, and each one has its own story, artistic language, and method of creation. The further you look, the more there is to discover.
Motorsport has always been a significant part of the BMW Art Cars’ history. In fact, the first four Art Cars – those of Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol – were FIA homologated race cars, and all four of them started on the grid at Le Mans from 1975 to 1979.
More than half of the Art Cars competed in races during this period, the majority at Le Mans. That history is still visible on some of them, with traces of patina left on the bodywork from being pushed in the world’s most renowned endurance race.
Some Art Cars, however, came to the project with championship-winning pedigrees. Supplied by BMW Australia, the two E30 M3 Group A cars that became Art Cars for Michael Jagamara Nelson and Ken Done had already established themselves in competition. Ken Done’s vibrant Art Car, in particular, was driven by Jim Richards to the 1987 Australian Group A Drivers’ Championship.
The most out-of-the-ordinary of the 20 Art Cars has got to be the BMW H2R Project. Little did I know, this ex-racing prototype was stripped of its conventional outer body and transformed by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson into a structure covered in layers of ice. The result is less like a painted car and more like a frozen, glowing sculpture. And yes, you actually had to step into a refrigerated, sub-zero environment to experience it closely.
The BMW Art Cars have always been a long tradition that blends form and function. Some demand attention from across the room, while others reward you for getting close and looking at the details.
But trying to take in all 20 at once is almost impossible: there’s simply too much history, technique and personality packed into the collection. But perhaps that’s the point. You didn’t need to have a favourite Art Car before entering the exhibition; you just needed to walk out fascinated by one of them.
I will admit some of the creative decisions BMW has been making as of late are questionable. However, they always cook with their art cars. You can’t go wrong with them they’re just cool.