LA-Based Artist John Baldessari to Design New BMW Art Car

Photo Credit: BMW

LA-based artist John Baldessari, along with Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei, have been tapped to collaborate with BMW on its Art Car Collection series.

The two artists have been commissioned by BMW and an international panel of museum directors to create two BMW M6 GT3s.

Baldessari—who both lives and works on the Westside of LA in Santa Monica and Venice—is best known as a conceptual artist whose work features photography and appropriated images. He began his career as a painter before incorporating text and photography into his canvases in the mid-1960s; by 1970 he began working with sculpture, film, video and printmaking. 

He, along with Fei, are joining an elite group of Art Car commissioned artists, including Alexander Calder, Olafur Elíasson, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.

At 84, is the oldest artist to contribute to this collection, while at 27, Fei is the youngest.

The car they’ll be designing, the M6 GT3, is the crown of the haute automotive company’s customer racing program. It sports a 4.4-liter V8 engine and is powered by M TwinPower Turbo technology.

Speaking at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York where the announcement was made regarding the latest Art Car artists, Ian Robertson, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, said, “On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the BMW Art Car Collection, it is time to look ahead. The collection is the embodiment of the cultural commitment of the BMW Group. Its vehicles stand for the combination of cutting-edge technology and inspiring art.”

Added Baldessari, “Creating art that exists outside of a museum is important to me and should be a goal for all artists. This will definitely be my fastest artwork yet.”

Photo Credit: BMW