There’s something about a race car that demands to be looked at. Maybe it’s the crouched stance, the exaggerated aerodynamics, or just the knowledge that it’s been built for speed—not beauty. But for the past 50 years, BMW has flipped that idea on its head, turning some of the world’s most iconic racing and road cars into moving masterpieces.
The BMW Art Car project started as a one-off, a wild idea from French racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain, who wanted to enter a race car that was as much art as engineering. What followed has become one of the most fascinating collaborations between automotive and artistic vision in history. Fifty years later, 20 cars—some raced, some revered, all revolutionary—continue to challenge what a car can be.
And now, to mark the anniversary, BMW is sending them around the world.
“Hervé, win! But drive carefully!”
Alexander Calder, BMW Art Car #1, 1975
An Anniversary on the Move
“The BMW Art Car Collection celebrates 50 years of artistic freedom and visionary design. The 20 vehicles have become international icons, telling stories of society, technology, and performance,” says Ilka Horstmeier, Board Member for Human Resources and Real Estate at BMW Group.
To celebrate, BMW is taking its rolling gallery on a world tour, with stops across Europe, Asia, and beyond. The first event, “(R)Evolution of Art,” lands in Vienna in March, where cars by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, and Jeff Koons will be showcased. Julie Mehretu’s latest Art Car, a BMW M Hybrid V8, will then head to Art Basel Hong Kong before continuing on an Asian tour.
“I love that car. It has turned out better than the artwork.”
Andy Warhol, BMW Art Car #4, 1979
But this is more than just an exhibition. Mehretu is expanding the Art Car project beyond the physical car, hosting workshops across Africa to support young film and media artists. The results will be shown in 2026 alongside her Art Car at the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, proving that BMW’s art obsession isn’t just about creating fast sculptures—it’s about pushing culture forward.
“These race cars are like life, they are bursting with power and have enormous energy. My ideas are meant to merge with this power – it’s all about fully embracing it.”
Jeff Koons / BMW M3 GT2 / 2010
The Artists and the Machines
Over the past 50 years, BMW has handed over its cars to some of the most influential artists of each era, giving them free rein to turn speed into spectacle. The list reads like an art history syllabus:
• Alexander Calder / BMW 3.0 CSL / 1975
• Frank Stella / BMW 3.0 CSL / 1976
• Roy Lichtenstein / BMW 320 Group 5 / 1977
• Andy Warhol / BMW M1 Group 4 / 1979
• 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
• A.R. 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 H₂R / 2007
• Jeff Koons / BMW M3 GT2 / 2010
• Cao Fei / BMW M6 GT3 / 2016
“The Car Should Not Only Race in a Physical Way 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 isn’t just an art exhibition on wheels. It’s a full-scale cultural event, complete with new books, models, and even a fashion collection. BMW is releasing a 1:18-scale version of Mehretu’s car, with a smaller 1:43 model to follow. A new edition of the BMW Art Cars book, featuring essays and interviews on the collection’s history, is also on the way. And in a move that continues BMW’s trend of bringing Art Car aesthetics to apparel, a third collaboration with Puma is set to launch later this year.
“The whole BMW Art Car project is about invention, about imagination, about pushing limits of what can be possible.”
Julie Mehretu / BMW M Hybrid V8 / 2024
Meanwhile, the BMW Museum in Munich is marking the occasion by combining two anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the Art Cars and the 50th anniversary of the BMW 3 Series. A special exhibition will showcase both milestones, including a lineup of M3 Art Cars 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
• 28-30 March 2025: Art Basel in Hong Kong
• 23 April-2 May 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’Eleganza Villa d’Este, Lake Como, Italy
• 16 June 2025-1 January 2026: BMW Museum, Munich
• 3 July-31 August, 2025: Louwman Museum, The Hague, Netherlands
• 24-28 September 2025: Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey
The Art Car World Tour will continue through 2026, with planned stops in Australia, Latin America, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, and the USA.
BimmerFile’s Take
A half-century on, the BMW Art Car project remains one of the most fascinating intersections of art and motorsport. It’s playful, it’s provocative, and unlike most automotive art, it’s never static. These aren’t just cars parked in a gallery—they’ve been raced, driven, and, in some cases, crashed. They blur the line between performance and performance art.
As the tour kicks off and BMW continues to push the Art Car project into new territories, one thing remains clear: this is more than just a marketing stunt. It’s a reminder that cars—especially ones as obsessively engineered as a BMW—can be more than just machines. They can be canvases. They can be sculptures. They can be statements.
And, sometimes, they can even be better than the artwork itself. Just ask Warhol.
BMW Art Car Photo Gallery
