Munich. Calder, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Holzer, Hockney, Koons, Rauschenberg, Mahlangu, Eliasson, Baldessari, Cao Fei, Mehretu. For the past 50 years, the BMW Art Car series has provided artists fascinated by automobiles with a perfect playground for art and design, technology and innovation, motorsport and engineering. The collection of 20 BMW Art Cars embodies the essence of global cultural engagement with over one hundred initiatives across contemporary art, music and film, as well as design. The "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 are all represented.

“I love that car. It has turned out better than the artwork.”
Andy Warhol, BMW Art Car #4, 1979

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. To mark the 50th anniversary, the BMW Art Car World Tour features an exhibition programme spanning all five continents and including numerous accompanying events.

“The car should not only race in a physical way but also in the heart.”
Cao Fei, BMW Art Car #18, 2016

An anniversary around the world.

"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. Our commitment to art and culture is long-term. We are continuously developing the collection and bringing art and automotive culture together in a unique way," says Ilka Horstmeier, Board Member for Human Resources and Real Estate at BMW Group.

The BMW Art Car World Tour kicks off in Europe and Asia. On 20-21 March, the BMW Art Cars created by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney and Jeff Koons will be on display at the Museum of Applied Arts and the SPARK Art Fair in Vienna for the BMW Group Niederlassung Wien event “(R)Evolution of Art”. 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.

Mehretu is developing her Art Car project far beyond the vehicle as an object and will host workshops for young film and media artists across five African countries in 2025, together with film producer Mehret Mandefro and the BMW Group. The results of the African Film and Media Arts Collective (AFMAC) will be presented in 2026 alongside Mehretu's Art Car in an exhibition at the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, curated by its Executive Director, Koyo Kouoh, the designated curator of the Venice Biennale 2026.

“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

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 classic car festival 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.

“I also thought it would be nice if women could participate other than standing around in bikinis.”
Jenny Holzer, BMW Art Car #15, 1999

The BMW Museum, the home of the BMW Art Cars when they are not travelling the world, 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 16 June, 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.                     

“I think mobile museums would be a good idea. This car is the fulfilment of my dream. I would like to do ten more.”
Robert Rauschenberg, BMW Art Car #6, 1986

New Art Car book, new Art Car model, new Art Car fashion collection.

In addition to the exhibition programme, BMW is releasing various new art and lifestyle products in celebration of the anniversary. The 1:18-scale miniature of the 20th Art Car by Julie Mehretu is available for purchase across BMW Lifestyle Shops, 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 20 Art Cars highlight the art historical relevance and diversity of the works. The cover design of the new edition is by Julie Mehretu. Following the popular Alexander Calder and Roy Lichtenstein fashion collections, the third collaboration with Puma based on the BMW Art Cars will be announced later this year.

“So you can say, the BMW Art Car is definitely a typical Baldessari and the fastest artwork I ever created!”
John Baldessari, BMW Art Car #19, 2016

Born from passion: a brief history of the BMW Art Car Collection.

On 14 June 1975, the BMW 3.0 CSL designed by American sculptor Alexander Calder took to the track at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The project was initially intended as a one-time collaboration between the artist and BMW. The audience cheered for the colourful racing car and children rejoiced. BMW decided this had to continue! It all began with the passion for art and motorsport of French auctioneer and racing driver Hervé Poulain. In 1975, Poulain found a visionary ally in Jochen Neerpasch, founder and Head of BMW Motorsport, for his plan to enter a BMW designed by an artist in the legendary Le Mans endurance race. Even though the first BMW Art Car retired from the race after seven hours, it became a true crowd favourite, laying the foundations for the collection.

“Hervé, win! But drive carefully!”
Alexander Calder, BMW Art Car #1, 1975

In close collaboration with legendary New York gallerist Leo Castelli, BMW Art Cars by American artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol followed – and all were raced by Hervé Poulain and the BMW team at Le Mans. From 1982 to 1992, the BMW Art Car Collection opened up to the world, with artists transforming various standard production models: Ernst Fuchs, Robert Rauschenberg, Michael Jagamara Nelson, Ken Done, Matazo Kayama, César Manrique, A. R. Penck, Esther Mahlangu, Sandro Chia and David Hockney. In 1999, BMW returned to motorsport with the BMW V12 LMR prototype and American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. Eight years later, Olafur Eliasson designed "Your mobile expectations: BMW H₂R Project" based on a record-breaking hydrogen race car. Jeff Koons, John Baldessari, Cao Fei, and Julie Mehretu have added dynamic race cars over the past 15 years. 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.

“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 Art Car #17, 2010

BMW Art Car World Tour 2025 (selection)

until 16 April 2025: Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
BMW Art Car #12 Esther Mahlangu

20-21 March 2025: SPARK Art Fair and MAK Museum Vienna, Austria
Event “(R)Evolution of Art” of the BMW Niederlassung Wien
BMW Art Cars #3 Roy Lichtenstein, #4 Andy Warhol, #6 Robert Rauschenberg, #14 David Hockney, #16 Jeff Koons

28-30 March 2025: Art Basel in Hong Kong
BMW Art Car #20 Julie Mehretu

23 April-2 May 2025: Shanghai Auto Show, China
BMW Art Car #20 Julie Mehretu

18-20 April 2025: Art Dubai, United Arab Emirates
BMW Art Car # TBA

May 2025: 50 Years of BMW Switzerland, Zurich, Switzerland
BMW Art Cars #5 Ernst Fuchs, #8 Ken Done, #11 A. R. Penck, #14 David Hockney, #15 Jenny Holzer, #19 John Baldessari

9-11 May 2025: Taipei Dangdai, Taiwan
BMW Art Car # TBA

27 May–1 June 2025: Bratislava, Slovakia
BMW Art Cars #2 Frank Stella, #7 Michael Jagamara Nelson, #9 Matazo Kayama

15-18 May 2025: Market Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
BMW Art Cars #1 Alexander Calder, #3 Roy Lichtenstein, #4 Andy Warhol, #17 Jeff Koons

23-25 May 2025: Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, Lake Como, Italy
BMW Art Car #13 Sandro Chia

16 June 2025-1 January 2026: BMW Museum, Munich
BMW Art Cars #7 Michael Jagamara Nelson, #8 Ken Done, #13 Sandro Chia

16 June 2025-31 August 2025: BMW Welt, Munich
BMW Art Cars #15 Jenny Holzer, #20 Julie Mehretu

27-29 June 2025: The Aurora, Båstad, Sweden
BMW Art Cars #1 Alexander Calder, #3 Roy Lichtenstein, #4 Andy Warhol, #17 Jeff Koons

3 July-31August, 2025: Louwman Museum, The Hague, Netherlands
BMW Art Cars #1 Alexander Calder, #2 Frank Stella, #3 Roy Lichtenstein, #4 Andy Warhol, #10 César Manrique, #12 Esther Mahlangu, #14 David Hockney, #17 Jeff Koons

24-28 September 2025: Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey
BMW Art Cars #1 Alexander Calder, #20 Julie Mehretu

The Art Car World Tour schedule is still evolving and will continue through most of 2026. Further stops and venues are planned, including Australia, Belgium (Brussels, Zoute), China (Macau), Germany (Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf), Kazakhstan, Latin America, Morocco (Marrakech), South Africa, Spain, Switzerland (Basel) and USA.

BMW Art Cars

1. Alexander Calder / BMW 3.0 CSL / 1975
2. Frank Stella / BMW 3.0 CSL / 1976
3. Roy Lichtenstein / BMW 320 Group 5 / 1977
4. Andy Warhol / BMW M1 Group 4 / 1979
5. Ernst Fuchs / BMW 635 CSi / 1982
6. Robert Rauschenberg / BMW 635 CSi / 1986
7. Michael Jagamara Nelson / BMW M3 Group A / 1989
8. Ken Done / BMW M3 Group A / 1989
9. Matazo Kayama / BMW 535i / 1990
10. César Manrique / BMW 730i / 1990
11. A.R. Penck / BMW Z1 / 1991
12. Esther Mahlangu / BMW 525i / 1991
13. Sandro Chia / BMW M3 GTR / 1992
14. David Hockney / BMW 850 CSi / 1995
15. Jenny Holzer / BMW V12 LMR / 1999
16. Olafur Eliasson / BMW H₂R / 2007
17. Jeff Koons / BMW M3 GT2 / 2010
18. Cao Fei / BMW M6 GT3 / 2016
19. John Baldessari / BMW M6 GTLM / 2016
20. Julie Mehretu / BMW M Hybrid V8 / 2024

Further information on the BMW Art Car Collection can be found here.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Ilya Baryshev
BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs
BMW Art Car World Tour
Phone: +49 151 601 544 36
Email: Ilya.Baryshev@bmwgroup.com  

Paris/Munich. The 20th BMW Art Car is being presented to the public for the first time today at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Designed by renowned New York-based contemporary artist Julie Mehretu, the project transforms the BMW M Hybrid V8 race car into a performative work of art, continuing a longstanding tradition of BMW Art Cars and competitive racing. Just a few weeks after its World Premiere in the French capital, the newest edition in the storied BMW Art Car collection will compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“The whole BMW Art Car project is about invention, about imagination, about pushing limits of what can be possible. I don’t think of this car as something you would exhibit. I am thinking of it as something that will race in Le Mans. It’s a performative painting. My BMW Art Car was created in close collaboration with motorsport and engineering teams,” says Julie Mehretu. “The BMW Art Car is only completed once the race is over.”

The collaboration between BMW and Julie Mehretu also includes a joint commitment to a series of PanAfrican Translocal Media Workshops for filmmakers, which will tour various African cities in 2025 and 2026, and will culminate in a major exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town.

“The BMW Art Cars are an essential part of our global cultural commitment. For almost 50 years, we have been cooperating with artists who are just as fascinated by mobility and design as they are by technology and motorsports. Julie Mehretu's vision for a racing car is an extraordinarily strong contribution to our BMW Art Cars series,” said Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “Julie Mehretu has created more than an amazing Art Car. Her ideas provided the impetus for us to expand the cultural commitment of our Art Cars to promote the creativity of young artists in Africa.”

A Performative Painting is Created.
Space, movement and energy have always been central motifs in Julie Mehretu's work. For the design of the 20th BMW Art Car, she transformed a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional representation for the first time, with which she succeeded in bringing dynamism into form. Julie Mehretu used the colour and form vocabulary of her monumental painting “Everywhen” (2021 - 2023) as a starting point for her design. The work is currently on view at "Ensemble", the artist’s exhibition at the Pinault Collection - Palazzo Grassi in Venice and will subsequently become part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, to which it has been gifted.

Its abstract visual form results from digitally altered photographs, which are superimposed in several layers of dot grids, neon-coloured veils and the black markings characteristic of Mehretu's work. “In the studio where I had the model of the BMW M Hybrid V8 I was just sitting in front of the painting and I thought: What would happen if this car seemed to go through that painting and becomes affected by it,” Julie Mehretu says. “The idea was to make a remix, a mash-up of the painting. I kept seeing that painting kind of dripping into the car. Even the kidneys of the car inhaled the painting.”

BMW Art Cars with Le Mans history come together at the Concorso d’Eleganza.
The fusion of image and vehicle was realised with the help of 3D mapping, with which the motif was transferred to the contours of the vehicle. The elaborate foiling allows for the fully designed BMW M Hybrid V8 to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. BMW Motorsport drivers Sheldon van der Linde (RSA), Robin Frijns (NED) and René Rast (GER) will enter the 20th BMW Art Car with starting number 20 at the Circuit de la Sarthe on 15 June. Like them, Julie Mehretu is also eagerly awaiting the race: “I went to see the BMW M Hybrid V8 race in Daytona, and this experience was overwhelming. Designers, engineers, aerodynamicists and so many other creative minds are working on taking this vehicle to its extreme. When it goes out on the racetrack now, so many dreams will be fulfilled.”

Leading up to race day, Julie Mehretu's BMW Art Car will make an appearance at the Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este in Lake Como on its way to Le Mans. As part of the exhibition for historic vehicles organised by the BMW Group and the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este, Julie Mehretu herself will present the 20th edition of the BMW Art Car Collection. It will be featured on the grounds of the Villa Erba together with the BMW Art Cars by Alexander Calder (1975), Frank Stella (1976), Roy Lichtenstein (1977), Andy Warhol (1979), Jenny Holzer (1999) and Jeff Koons (2010), which also made their race debut at Le Mans. Julie Mehretu will discuss the creation of the 20th BMW Art Car in an artist talk with Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design, on Sunday, 26 May 2024.

Inspiration for Young Artists: PanAfrican Translocal Media Workshops.
The collaboration between BMW and Julie Mehretu was conceived from the beginning beyond the automobile. It will culminate after the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a project for emerging artists on the African continent: The PanAfrican Translocal Media Workshops. Together, the partners are focussing on the creative potential across the African continent, where the BMW Group has been making a contribution to social responsibility with educational projects for over 50 years.

Julie Mehretu and Mehret Mandefro, Emmy-nominated producer, writer and co-founder of the Realness Institute, which works to strengthen the media ecosystem in Africa, will organise workshops in various African cities and regions throughout 2025. The goal of the project is to provide a space for artists and filmmakers to collaborate and exchange ideas. These meetings will offer a forum for artists to develop new pathways towards a just civic future in their respective communities.

The PanAfrican Translocal Workshop series will visit the cities of Dakar (Senegal), Marrakech (Morocco), Kigali (Rwanda), Lagos (Nigeria) and Cape Town (South Africa). The results of the workshops will be presented together with the 20th BMW Art Car at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in the first half of 2026.

The BMW Group is thus consistently continuing its decades-long support for film and creative talent: from the short film series ‘The Hire’ and the partnership with the Cannes International Film Festival to the acquisition of works by students from art academies in the neighbourhoods of the company’s plants worldwide.

The Artist.
Julie Mehretu is a world-renowned American painter. She was born in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, in 1970. Together with her family she moved to the U.S. at the age of seven. She lives and works in New York City and Berlin.

Mehretu’s practice in painting, drawing and printmaking engage the viewer in a dynamic visual articulation of contemporary experience, a depiction of social behavior and the psychogeography of space by exploring palimpsests of history, from geological time to a modern-day phenomenology of the social.

Mehretu received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Kalamazoo College in Michigan, spent a year abroad at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and completed her Master's degree of Fine Art with honors from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1997. Mehretu has received numerous awards, including the The MacArthur Award (2005), The Berlin Prize: Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship at The American Academy in Berlin (2007) and the U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts Award (2015). A mid-career survey of Mehretu's work recently toured at LACMA (Los Angeles), High Museum (Atlanta) The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) and The Walker Museum of Art (Minneapolis) from 2019 to 2023. Her largest European solo exhibition to date entitled “Ensemble” opened March 17, 2024 at Palazzo Grassi in Venice.

Mehretu is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and The National Academy of Design. Her global representative is Marian Goodman Gallery. She also exhibits with White Cube, London, and Carlier Gebauer, Berlin.

Statement from the Jury for the 20th BMW Art Car.
Julie Mehretu was unanimously selected in 2018 by a jury of high-ranking representatives of the international art world to design the 20th BMW Art Car. The panel includes renowned curators and museum directors from various countries, including Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries, London; and Cecilia Alemani, Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director and Chief Curator, High Line Art, New York.

On the occasion of the World Premiere of the BMW Art Car designed by Julie Mehretu in Paris, the jury members published the following statement: "We are thrilled with Julie's BMW Art Car! Okwui Enwezor had already coined the phrase ‘Dynamism in Form’ during our jury session and nothing applies better to her BMW M Hybrid V8 race car. Julie’s first three-dimensional work combines her aesthetics and formal language with the idea of the glitch and the blur, turning speed into a visceral experience. This energetic space is as fierce and competitive in racing as it is ambitious as a creative playground of the imagination. It not only pays homage to the art cars of Jenny Holzer and Frank Stella, but also spins a visual web from Mad Max to graffiti and street art that is unique within the series of BMW Art Cars."

The BMW M Hybrid V8.
The canvas for the 20th BMW Art Car is the BMW M Hybrid V8. The new race car from BMW M GmbH features a hybrid electric drivetrain system with approximately 640 hp, powered by a 4.0-litre V8 engine supported by an electric motor (top speed: up to 345 km/h or 215 mph, depending on the race track layout).

During this year’s official FIA World Endurance Championship races, the BMW M Hybrid V8 will take on high-calibre competition in the Hypercars category. The car will also compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans – the first BMW M Motorsport prototype to do so since the BMW V12 LMR, which won the classic race in 1999.

The BMW Art Car Collection.
Renowned artists from all over the world have participated in the BMW Art Car program since 1975. The initiative came from the French racing driver and art lover Hervé Poulain, who, together with the then BMW Head of Motorsport Jochen Neerpasch, asked his artist friend Alexander Calder to paint a car. The result was a BMW 3.0 CSL, which competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975 and became a crowd favourite.

This was the birth of the BMW Art Car Collection. In the years that followed, renowned artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Ólafur Elíasson and Jeff Koons enriched the collection with further BMW Art Cars, each in their own individual style. Most recently, the Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei and American conceptual artist John Baldessari each presented a BMW Art Car based on the BMW M6 GT3 and GTLM respectively in 2016 and 2017. The BMW Art Cars are not only shown at their home, the BMW Museum in Munich, but are also on tour around the world as part of international exhibitions.