Julie Mehretu at the Rolex 24 at DAYTONA, 2023.BMW Group/News Aktuell via AP Images/The Associated Press
For BMW’s 20th art car project, the German auto maker chose Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu to follow in the footsteps of Warhol and Koons. The artist known for her abstract painting has less than a year to design and apply the art livery for the manufacturer’s M Hybrid V8 race car to make it ready to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June 2024.
BMW’s Art Cars are part of the car manufacturer’s 50-year history of supporting the arts. The first art car was commissioned in 1975 by Hervé Poulain, a French race car driver. Poulain wanted a unique vehicle to enter in the Le Mans 24-hour race. With the blessing of BMW Motorsport founder Jochen Neerpasch, Poulain sought American sculptor Alexander Calder with a scale model of the BMW 3.0CSL he was planning to race. Calder examined the model, drew some sketches and agreed. The art car program was born.
Since then, 19 cars have been produced, including race cars by artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Cao Fei and John Baldessari.
The next art car creator, New York-based Mehretu, has had a long career as a visual artist. She is best known for large-format compositions made from layers of paper and paint. One of her most famous works is an almost 25-metre wide piece called Mural that hangs in the Goldman Sachs Tower in New York.
JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail
BMW 635 CSi Art Car by Robert Rauschenberg is unveiled during the opening night of Art Toronto 2012, at the Metro Convention Centre on Oct. 25, 2012.JENNIFER ROBERTS/The Globe and Mail
Mehretu’s challenge with art car No. 20 will be to come up with art for a purpose-built, aerodynamically complex racing vehicle. The M Hybrid V8 is built of carbon fibre and weighs only 1,000 kilograms. It is a low-slung beast with wide fender arches and a centre cockpit. Its wide, flat form will give the artist plenty of room to work, but with one caveat: The application of the artwork will have to be carefully managed so as not to compromise the car’s performance.
BMW wants to win the race at Le Mans, so the art car will have to be sleek and fast. It will be the first BMW M Motorsport prototype since the BMW V12 LMR won the race in 1999.
Timo Resch, BMW M division’s vice-president of customer, brand and sales, said at last week’s unveiling event at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City that Mehretu has creative freedom with the car, and “we will be thrilled if she makes it faster.”
Mehretu said she really had no idea how she would accomplish the job when she was selected by the jury in 2018. But after several years of thinking and conceptualizing, she is full of enthusiasm for the project.
The BMW M Hybrid V8 race car artist Ms. Mehretu will design before next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.Emily Atkins/The Globe and Mail
The Alexander Calder Art car BMW 3.0 CSL 24 of 1975 on May 29.JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP/Getty Images
“I’ve loved cars for most of my life, as toys, as objects, as possibilities,” she said. “The thrill of the speed, the 24 Hour race of Le Mans and what is possible to invent in hybrid and fully electric vehicles as future modes of play and pushing ahead into new terrains of transportation and motorsports.”
Mehretu said that a recent trip to watch the Daytona 24-hour race was an exhilarating eye-opener. Never having been to the track before, she says she was amazed at the cars passing at speed.
As a result, she said her design will meld the idea of our uncertain future with that blur you see when a race car drives past you at more than 300 kilometres an hour. “I will definitely play with the blur, " she said. “A big part of art is play.”
Since 1972, when BMW commissioned works from German artist Gerhard Richter to hang at its headquarters, the company has broadened its support of the arts to include not just visual arts, but music, film, design and architecture.
BMW Art Car, by Esther Mahlangu's, was unveiled for display for the first time in Canada at Art Toronto on Oct. 28, 2010.Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Cultural activities are part of BMW’s genetic makeup said Ilka Horstmeier, a member of BMW’s management board responsible for people and places, including the arts programs at a media event. “The original reason was to give something to our people to enhance their working lives,” she said. “The other side is that corporations like BMW are now measured not only on profit, but really have to balance economic success with environmental and social responsibility. It’s been a long-term philosophy that is just becoming more important.”
The BMW M Hybrid V8 is currently competing in the GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) class of the North American IMSA endurance racing series. BMW M Motorsport will also return to the FIA World Endurance Championship in the 2024 season.
Press photograph the BMW M Hybrid V8 race car artist Ms. Mehretu will design.Emily Atkins/The Globe and Mail
The BMW Art Car 3.0 CSL, 1976 by Frank Stella at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 4, 2009.TOMAS BRAVO
The writer was a guest of the auto maker. Content was not subject to approval.