Frank Stella is just one of the artists who painted BMW Art Cars. The list also includes Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg.
It’s a shame the New York International Auto Show’s media days do not coincide with the BMW exhibit in Grand Central Station’s Vanderbilt Hall. This has to be the most unique display of cars and art and art cars one has ever seen.
Many have seen artisan painted Bimmer’s at various auto shows, one at a show, but with four exhibited in the high vaulted ceiling vastness of this venue, the sight is inspiring verging on awesome.
The Art Cars of world famous artists Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein were commissioned with the goal of viewing each BMW as if it were a traditional artistic medium that could be dramatically displayed on eye-level acute angles, rather than just placed on a flat platform.
“It was not easy,” world renowned artist and racing fan, Frank Stella, told me in a brief interview, “I was surprised by the length of time – over three weeks – to create a design I know would be special but I made a lot of mistakes. Now I’d morph a design with PhotoShop. My paintings are done in much less time.”
Where does the art begin and end? That's part of the theme behind BMW's Art Car program.
Stella’s original design, his second BMW Art Car (a 3.0 CSL), he told me, was first done by pasting graph-paper-grids, on a scale model, which was then faithfully painted by BMW’s in-house professional painters.
Compare this to Andy Warhol’s BMW Art Car, which the legendary artist did in less than one hour. And yet, this is the most valuable car of the 16 in BMWs collection of art cars, according to Thomas Girst, BMW’s sprecher kulturkommunikation, cultural communications spokesperson.
For a brief video history of BMW Art cars and why the company has sponsored and underwritten these artists, just click to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIGlc_TMJnU&feature=channel_page
BMW’s Art Cars are moving works of art created by artists painting on cars. But there is an equally stunning artistic endeavor in which a new BMW Z4 car controlled by South African artist Robin Rhode sprayed paint from its tires to a huge canvas in a huge airplane hangar. The interplay of color and space combining with the treads of the tires is astonishing. But there’s more …
The artist’s remotely controlled car’s movements and paint applications by the Z4 were photographed by 100 high definition video cameras at different camera angles and heights, controlled by British film maker James Scott.
“Hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of video footage had to be viewed, then reviewed, then edited and assembled into a number of different finished shows,” Scott told me. This includes a commercial and special releases for movies and television that will be released sometime soon. .
A huge 30′ x 40′ section of the painting, covered in a curved plastic enclosure was also the stage for an interesting press conference discussion between the artist, film maker and Jack Pitney, vice president of marketing of BMW.
The result of combining art and video – two different mediums – into a singular object is astonishing and remarkable. So unless your expense account allows you to come in two days early, click to this commercial which provides a taste of the exceptional experience you missed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7EWCNHLGTU