A racing car has something that wants to look at. Perhaps it is the crouching attitude, the exaggerated aerodynamics or just know that it has been built for speed – no beauty. But in the past 50 years, BMW has put this idea upside down and transformed some of the world’s best-known racing and street cars into moving masterpieces.
The BMW Art Car project began as a unique, wild idea of the French racing driver and the auctioneer Hervé Poulain, who wanted to enter a racing car that was as much art as engineering. What followed has become one of the most fascinating cooperation between automotive and artistic vision in history. Fifty years later, 20 cars – some dangers, some are worshiped, all revolutionary – help to challenge what a car can be.
And now BMW sends it around the world.
“Hervé, win! But drive carefully! ”
Alexander Calder, BMW Art Car #1, 1975
An anniversary in motion
“The BMW Art Car Collection celebrates 50 years of artistic freedom and visionary design. The 20 vehicles have become international icons, tell stories about society, technology and performance, ”says Ilka Horstmeier, board member for human resources and real estate at the BMW Group.
BMW takes his Rolling Gallery on a world tour with stops across Europe, Asia and beyond. The first event, “(R) Evolution of Art”, ends up in Vienna in March, where cars from Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney and Jeff Koons are presented. Julie Mehretus latest Kuntauto, a BMW M Hybrid V8, will then go to Art Basel Hong Kong before continuing on an Asian tour.
“I love this car. It has developed better than the work of art. “
Andy Warhol, BMW Art Car #4, 1979
But that’s more than just one exhibition. Mehretu extends the artificial car project beyond the physical car and organizes workshops across Africa to support young film and media artists. The results will be shown in 2026 together with its artisto in Zeitz Mocaa in Cape Town in order to prove that BMW’s art obsession is not just about creating quick sculptures – it is about driving the culture.
“These racial cars are like life, they burst in power and have enormous energy. My ideas should merge with this force – it is about hugging them completely. “
Jeff Koons / BMW M3 GT2 / 2010
The artists and the machines
In the past 50 years, BMW has given its cars to some of the most influential artists at all times to give them free approval in order to transform speed into a spectacle. The list is like a curriculum for art history:
• Alexander Calder / BMW 3.0 CSL / 1975
• Frank Stella / BMW 3.0 CSL / 1976
• Roy Lichtenstein / BMW 320 Group 5/777
• Andy Warhol / BMW M1 Group 4/779
• Ernst Fuchs / BMW 635 CSI / 1982
• Robert Rauschenberg / BMW 635 CSI / 1986
I think mobile museums would be a good idea. This car is the fulfillment of my dream. I would like to do ten more.
Robert Rauschenberg / BMW 635 CSI / 1986
• Michael Jagamara Nelson / BMW M3 Group A / 1989
• Ken Done / BMW M3 Group A / 1989
• Matazo Kayama / BMW 535i / 1990
• César Manrique / BMW 730i / 1990
• Ar Penck / BMW Z1 / 1991
• Esther Mahlangu / BMW 525i / 1991
• Sandro Chia / BMW M3 GTR / 1992
• David Hockney / BMW 850 CSI / 1995
• Jenny Holzer / BMW V12 LMR / 1999
• Olafur Eliasson / BMW Hgins / 2007
• Jeff Koons / BMW M3 GT2 / 2010
• CAO FEI / BMW M6 GT3 / 2016
“The car should not only run physically, but also in the heart”
Cao Fei, BMW Art Car #18, 2016
• John Baldessari / BMW M6 GTLM / 2016
• Julie Mehretu / BMW M Hybrid V8 / 2024
More than just a show – a cultural moment
This is not just an art exhibition on wheels. It is a complete cultural event with new books, models and even a fashion collection. BMW publishes a 1:18 version of Mehretus Auto with a smaller 1: 43 model. A new edition of the BMW Kuntautos The book with essays and interviews on the history of the collection is also on the go. And in a step that continues the trend of BMW to bring Kuntauto aesthetics to clothing, a third collaboration with Puma will be started later this year.
“The entire BMW Art Car project deals with the invention, imagination, the limits of what can be possible.”
Julie Mehretu / BMW M Hybrid V8 / 2024
In the meantime, the BMW Museum in Munich marks the occasion with two anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the artists and the 50th anniversary of the BMW 3 Series. A special exhibition shows both milestones, including a series of M3 Kunstautos from Sandro Chia, Michael Jagamara Nelson and Ken Done.
BMW Art Car World Tour 2025 (selection)
• 20-21 March 2025: Spark Art Fair and Mak Museum Vienna, Austria
• 28th to March 30, 2025: Art Basel in Hong Kong
• April 23, May 2, 2025: Shanghai Auto Show, China
• 18.-20. April 2025: Art Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• 9-11 May 2025: Taipei Dangdai, Taiwan
• 23-25 May 2025: Concorso d’Elanza Villa d’Este, Lake Como, Italy
• June 16, 2025-1, 2026: BMW Museum, Munich
• 3. July 31. August 2025: Louwman Museum, Haag, Netherlands
• 24.-28. September 2025: Contemporary Istanbul, Türkiye
The Art Car World Tour will continue with planned stops in Australia, Latin America, Morocco, South Africa, Spain and the USA by 2026.
Bimmerfile’s take
The BMW Art Car Project, half a century, remains one of the most fascinating intersections of art and motorsport. It is playful, provocative and in contrast to most automotive art, it is never static. These are not only cars parked in a gallery – they were driven, driven and crashed in some cases. They blur the limit between performance and performance art.
When the tour begins and BMW continues to push the artificial car project into new areas, one thing remains clear: this is more than just a marketing stunt. It is a memory that cars – especially those owned as BMW – can be more than just machines. You can be canvases. You can be sculptures. You can be statements.
And sometimes you can even be better than the work of art itself. Just ask Warhol.
BMW Kuntautos photo gallery
