The BMW Art Car Gallery: Third Floor
Now that you've seen the First and Second floors, let's take a look at BMW's Third floor of their Art Car Gallery.
The advent of the ’90s saw another series of BMW Art Cars as yet more artists gave their interpretation of the point where art and the automobile intersect. César Manrique, the celebrated Spanish painter and sculptor, was given the honor of creating such a vision using the platform of a BMW 730i.
Fusing technology and art was the key objective in this work. ” to unite the notions of speed and aerodynamics with the concept of aesthetic appeal in one and the same object.”
Manrique’s concept was that of a bird in flight: "That explains my idea of painting the BMW to appear as if it were gliding through space without encountering any form of resistance.”
The first German to join the elite band of artists commissioned to produce a BMW Art Car was A.R. Penck. Originally from Dresden in the German Democratic Republic, he was regarded as politically suspect by the Communist regime, too independent of mind to be trusted. He was exiled by the GDR in 1980, settling in West Germany.
This injustice was a major motivation in producing the Art Car, based on the last car off the production line of the BMW Z1. Penck wanted no financial compensation for his work, only that BMW should organize an exhibition of his work in Moscow, the capital of socialism. A popular slogan on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall was: "To learn from the Soviet Union is to learn victory!” That would be a truly subtle form of revenge.
BMW persuaded the Russians to stage the exhibition without too much trouble but it was cancelled at short notice. In an irony that the artist would appreciate, the Berlin Wall fell and the two Germanys were to be reunited, Penck would have his exhibition, but in his former home town of Dresden.
Penck spoke of his work: "I am interested in how art relates to art, how art related to technology – and above all how art related to a solid object.”
The first woman to add a work to the BMW Art Car collection was Esther Mahlangu, who brought her traditional South African Ndebele painting style to transform a BMW 525i.
The inspiration for these intricate geometric patterns was the walls of the Ndebele houses that the women of the tribe decorate to commemorate important events such as weddings. “The patterns I use in the BMW design bring together our heritage and the modernity of the car.”
"My art has evolved from the tribal tradition of decorating our homes. When I am painting, everything is in my mind. I don’t think anyone can tell me what to do. When I start painting everything just comes.”
It was back to a racing car to provide the raw ingredient for the next BMW Art Car, a BMW M3 GTR to be precise. The Italian, Sandro Chia, was chosen to express himself on this fastest of canvasses.
Chia is one the leaders of the Italian Transavantgarde movement, and as he later declared once confronted with the plain white racer his original plans went out of the window. He covered the car with faces of men and women overlapping to create the effect of a crowd.
“The astonished and marvelling faces represent the public. They are spectators, who are both reflected in the shiny surface of the car and, in turn, fixated on the surface, on the car’s reflective skin.”
Chia added, "This car here meets the people who look at it like a mirror. It is an interchange of beauty.”
The final work in this part of the collection is the vision of David Hockney. “BMW gave me the model of the car and I kept looking at it, and looking at it, and then, I must admit, I looked at the other Art Cars. In the end I thought probably it would be good to perhaps show the car so you could be looking inside it.”
Hockney’s work is almost certainly influenced by being a long term resident of Los Angeles, reflecting the special relationship that those living in that part of the world have with their cars, who also happen to spend hours on daily commutes and in traffic. Car culture really matters in SoCal.
Hockney said of the BMW 850CSi: “The car has wonderful lines and I followed them.” He personalized his Art Car by incorporating one of his beloved dachshunds behind the driver. Hockney received an 850CSi as payment for his work and had BMW install a special water system to provide liquid refreshment to his dogs during long journeys.
The final floor of this journey through the interaction of the worlds of BMW and the Art community will take the form of a visit to my private gallery, which includes my personal encounters with two famous Art Cars.
(Photos: Copyright and courtesy of BMW AG)
(Interviews taken from BMW Art Cars ISBN 978-3-7757-3345-8 ©BMW AG)
