The stage: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York Metropolis. The canvas: the BMW M Hybrid V8. The artist: New York-based artist Julie Mehretu, a MacArthur Award and the US Division of State Medal of Arts Award recipient with works exhibited at LACMA, Whitney Museum of American Artwork, and the Walker Museum of Artwork.
Unanimously chosen by a global jury of museum administrators and curators, the announcement of the twentieth BMW Artwork Automobile was staged on the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York Metropolis. Mehretu may have carte blanche to decorate the most recent “rolling sculpture”– the 640-hp BMW M Hybrid V8, able to monitor speeds upward of 215 mph – forward of its look within the 24-Hour race of Le Mans in June 2024.
Since 1975, the German automaker has invited artists from everywhere in the world to take part within the BMW Artwork Automobiles assortment, an initiative born from French racing driver and artwork lover Hervé Poulain, who, in collaboration with then Head of BMW Motorsport, Jochen Neerpasch, requested his artist buddy Alexander Calder to color an car. The end result was a BMW 3.0 CSL, a car that went onto compete within the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975, adorned by Calder’s creative contact.
Since then, the likes of Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jenny Holzer, David Hockney, Cao Fei, and John Baldessari have created racing vehicles for BMW. A couple of of our favourite previous BMW Artwork Automobiles under:
I’ve beloved vehicles for many of my life, as toys, as objects, as prospects. It’s from that house that I’m actually excited to be engaged on the following BMW Artwork Automobile greater than something. The fun of the pace, the 24 Hour race of Le Mans and what’s potential to invent in hybrid and absolutely electrical automobiles as future modes of play and pushing forward into new terrains of transportation and motorsports.
– Julie Mehretu
The twentieth BMW Artwork Automobile will go on to be offered collectively on the Zeitz Museum of Modern Artwork Africa in Cape City in 2025 alongside works born from the Translocal Media Workshop Sequence, gatherings in eight African cities over the course of 9 months hosted by Julie Mehretu and Mehret Mandefro, supposed to strengthen the media ecosystem throughout Africa and create areas for artists to fulfill, trade, and collaborate.