17. Jeff Koons 2010
Jeff Koons this week revealed his latest creation in Paris, BMW Art Car number 17. Koons and his staff have been working on the brightly colored design since February.
The BMW M3 GT2 is covered in a vinyl wrap with a design that really pops. The car will race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, June 12-13, 2010.
The tradition of creating BMW art cars has been around since the 1970s. Previous art cars were designed by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ernst Fuchs.
1. 1975 Alexander Calder
BMW has released today the first image of the latest BMW Art Car Jeff Koons which will be premiered at the 24 hours of Le Mans race. The new BMW Art Car Jeff Koons is based on the BMW M3 GT2 which has been homologated to run in this year’s Le Mans event. The BMW Art Car by Jeff Koons is the 17th creation of the range and will be unveiled in France on June 12, 2010.
3. Roy Lichtenstein 1977
To get the inspiration of the 17th BMW Art Car, Jeff Koons joined the company’s racing team for testing in Sebring, where he was able to experience the racer at work. The Jeff Koons BMW Art Car was produced by the artists together with a team of BMW engineers and designers at Schmid Design, in the company’s homeland in Bavaria.
For the actual design of the BMW Art Car, Jeff Koons used 3D computer-aided design (CAD) models which gave him the opportunity to view the end result from all angles, before putting it in reality. The previous BMW Art Cars have been designed without the help of a computer.
4. Andy Warhol 1979
The design of the BMW Art Car Jeff Koons features various racing and speed motifs, including debris and supersonic acceleration hints.
The Design Process
As part of his creative process, the artist collected images of race cars, related graphics, vibrant colors, speed and explosions. The resulting artwork of bright colors conceived by Koons is evocative of power, motion and bursting energy. Its silver interior along with the powerful exterior design, the Art Car will impart a dynamic appearance even when it’s standing still.
“These race cars are like life, they are powerful and there is a lot of energy,” said Koons.
