NEW YORK, NY.- For the past 50 years, the BMW Art Car series has provided artists fascinated by automobiles with a perfect playground of art and design, technology and innovation, motorsport and engineering. The 20 “rolling sculptures”—from Alexander Calder’s first-ever Art Car to Julie Mehretu’s latest—offer a cross-section of art history over the past five decades: minimalism, pop art, magical realism, abstraction, conceptual art and digital art. To mark the 50th anniversary, the BMW Art Car World Tour features an exhibition programme spanning all five continents and including numerous accompanying events.
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20 artists since 1975
Calder, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Holzer, Hockney, Koons, Rauschenberg, Mahlangu, Eliasson, Baldessari, Cao Fei, Mehretu. Since its invention nearly 140 years ago, artists worldwide have engaged with the automobile both critically and enthusiastically. And over the last 50 years, the BMW Art Car series has contributed significantly to this inspiring dialogue. The artists are selected by international juries of museum directors. In close collaboration with the BMW Group’s engineering and design teams, they freely develop their concepts and inspire everyone involved.
“I love that car. It has turned out better than the artwork.” —Andy Warhol, BMW Art Car #4, 1979
“The whole BMW Art Car project is about invention, about imagination, about pushing limits of what can be possible.” —Julie Mehretu, BMW Art Car #20, 2024
An anniversary around the world
The BMW Art Car World Tour kicks off in Europe and Asia. On March 20–22, the BMW Art Cars by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney and Jeff Koons will be showcased in Vienna at the Museum of Applied Arts and the SPARK Art Fair. Meanwhile, the latest and 20th BMW Art Car—the BMW M Hybrid V8 by renowned American painter Julie Mehretu—will embark on an Asian tour and be displayed at Art Basel in Hong Kong on 28-30 March.
The BMW Museum, the home of the BMW Art Cars, is also honouring the collection by combining two anniversaries in a special exhibition. The BMW 3 Series is also celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, and starting June 16, the museum will showcase a historical overview of all BMW 3 Series models as well as the BMW M3 Art Cars by Sandro Chia, Michael Jagamara Nelson, and Ken Done.
In addition to the tour, BMW is releasing various new art and lifestyle products in celebration of the anniversary. Among others, a 1:18-scale miniature of the 20th Art Car by Julie Mehretu is available for purchase, with a 1:43 version to follow later in the year. Together with publisher Hatje Cantz, BMW is presenting the third edition of the BMW Art Cars catalogue. Interviews with the founders of the collection and essays on each of the twenty Art Cars highlight the art historical relevance and diversity of the works.
Important museums and platforms for classic automobiles are also celebrating the milestone anniversary of the BMW Art Cars. The 13th Art Car by Sandro Chia will be showcased at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como in May. In July and August, the Louwman Museum in The Hague will present eight BMW Art Cars in a special exhibition.
Running through most of 2026, the BMW Art Car World Tour is set to be one of the most ambitious and exciting journeys yet.
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