Words By: David Lee
Pictures Courtesy of Galeri Petronas

Ever seen a seen a car being used as a canvas for art / painting on?  Well guys, there are 15 BMW cars that have been used by world re-known artist as canvas for their masterpieces.  This collection of art cars are known as the “BMW Art Cars”.  These cars are currently on world exhibition tour initiated by BMW, and is called “BMW Art Cars on Tour 2006”

This world tour was kicked off with its Asian leg at the Galeri Petronas which is housed in Kuala Lumpur’s world famous Twin Towers Suria KLCC Mall.  4 Beemers beautifully painted by Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Ken Done will be exhibited around the world.

The idea of creating a masterpiece on wheels was brain child of racing driver Hervẽ Poulin.  In 1975, Hervẽ & Alexander Calder an American artist created the first BMW Art Car.  Alexander painted Hervẽ’s BMW 3.0 CSL race car which took part in that years 24-hour Le Mans race.  Since then world famous artist like A.R. Penck, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Robert Rauschenberg, Sandro Chia, Ernst Fuchs, Matazo Kayama, Cẽsar Manrique and even well known Australian Aboriginal artist Michael Jagamara Nelson and South Africa’s Ndebele ornamental artist Esther Mahlangu have painted their masterpieces on a BMW.

Collection featured at Galeri Petronas are:

BMW Art Car by Frank Stella, 1976 BMW 3.0 CSL
Frank an American minimalist artist, sculptor and painter’s canvas is a 6-Cylinder in-line 1976 BMW with Twin overhead camshafts, Displacement of 3,210 cm³, Power output of 750 bhp and top speed of 341 km/h.  This art car utilizes precision grid lines of graph paper for design.

BMW Art Car by Roy Lichtenstein, 1977 BMW 320i Group 5 Racing Version
American Pop Artist, Roy painted on a 4-Cylinder in-line Beemer with Twin overhead camshafts, Displacement of 2,000 cm³, Power output of 300 bhp and top speed of 257 km/h using modern painting techniques and comic book formats of thick black lines, bold flat colours, and his signature “Benday Dots”

BMW Art Car by Andy Warhol, 1979 BMW M1 Group 4 Racing Version
Andy also an American Pop Artist and avant-garde filmmaker created his masterpiece on a 6-Cylinder in-line BMW, with Twin overhead camshafts, Displacement of 3,500 cm³, Power output of 470 bhp with top speed of 307 km/h, using paint, brushes and fingers for an abstract expressionist art work.

BMW Art Car by Ken Done, 1989 M3 Group A Racing Version
Ken, popular painter and international graphic designer from Australia had a 4-Cylinder in-line, with Double overhead camshafts, Displacement of 2,332 cm³, Power output of 300 bhp with top speed of 281 km/h 1989 BMW as a canvas for his vibrant colourful masterpiece.