Haute Auto of the Week: Jeff Koons BMW Art Car

Artist Jeff Koons and supermodel Karolína Kurková presented the North American premiere of Koons’ BMW Art Car, the M3 GT2 race car on December 4th, the night of the opening day of Art Basel in Miami Beach. The unveiling happened during a BMW reception in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden where Koons and Marc Spiegel, Director of Art Basel spoke.

At the event, Koons remarked: “I always enjoyed the Art Cars – Warhol’s Car, Roy Lichtenstein’s car, Stella’s, Calder’s – all the cars have always been fantastic. I just wanted to participate. The art world is like a family and I wanted to also be involved in this dialogue of designing an Art Car. Today I’m proud that this car is there alongside their work too.”

Jeff Koons’ BMW Art Car will remain on display at Miami Beach Botanical Garden, across the entrance from the South Beach Convention Center at 2000 Convention Center Drive, until finally of the fair on December 8, 2013.

Another legendary “rolling sculpture”, created by Andy Warhol, will be on display in Art Basel’s Collectors Lounge. The pop art icon painted a BMW M1 that raced in the 24-hour race at Le Mans in 1979.

The BMW Art Car Collection started when French racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain invited his friend Alexander Calder to design his BMW Le Mans 24-hour race car in 1975 and so the BMW Art Car was born. Since then some of the greatest names in contemporary art have been added to the collection creating a wide range of artistic interpretations and there are now 17 BMW Art Cars in total.

During Art Basel in Miami Beach, the BMW i8, the i brand’s high performance plug-in hybrid, will also make its East Coast debut, at a reception at the SLS Hotel in South Beach on December 5, 2013.