BMW M6 GTLM Art Car created by John Baldessari
The 17th member of the BMW Art Car collection has been created by one of California's most well known conceptual artists
The newest addition to BMW’s Art Car linage has arrived, unveiled at this year’s edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach, Florida.
2016’s inductee into the 40 year old Art Car club is an M6 GTLM racer, painted by “American master of conceptual art” John Baldessari.
The 577bhp racer will be on display until the closing of Art Basel on 4 December, after which it will enter competition. An appearance at the 2017 Rolex 24 hours at Daytona in late January will mark the new Art Car’s full racing debut.
• Gallery: BMW's Art Cars come to London
Explaining his work, Baldessari said “I entered unchartered territory, not just in terms of the subject, but moving from two- to three- dimensional art.
“The ideas came all at once: for instance, the red dot on the roof, so you can see it from above, FAST on one side and a picture of the car on the other side. I like the ambiguity, having two-dimension and three-dimension at the same time.
While contemporary art isn’t our specialism at Auto Express, we’re assured that this is trademark Baldessari work – the colourful, minimalist dots are one of his most well known stylistic devices.
As for the car itself, the 6 Series racer uses a turbocharged 4.4-litre V8 developing up to 577bhp, while weight is kept below 1,250kg.
Since 1975, a total of 17 internationally renowned artists have contributed to the BMW Art Car collection, road cars and racers alike. Baldessari’s creation lines up against BMWs conceived by the likes of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney and Jeff Koons.
The 18th BMW Art Car will appear next summer, created by Chinese contemporary artist Cao Fei.
Which BMW Art Car is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below…
Find a car with the experts
