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Jeff Koons BMW M3 GT2 art car - Click above for high-res image gallery

The latest in a 35-year-long run of BMW art cars was unveiled in Paris today ahead of its participation in next week's 24 hours of Le Mans. The M3 GT2 was painted by American artist Jeff Koons with a multicolored theme that should look pretty wild when photographed running down the Mulsanne straight after dark.

Koons first approached BMW about creating an art car in 2003, but the project finally came to fruition earlier this year. Over the last four months Koons has worked closely with the BMW Motorsports squad on the application of the graphics to ensure they didn't have any negative affect on the car's aerodynamics.

Several of the 16 previous art cars have also run at Le Mans including the very first one created by Alexander Calder in 1975 and the 1999 V12 LMR painted by Jenny Holzer. This year the #79 art car will be driven by Andy Priaulx (GB), Dirk Müller (DE) and Dirk Werner (DE) while the standard white "Joy"-liveried #78 will be piloted by Jörg Müller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE). Video of the unveiling is after the jump.


Gallery: Jeff Koons BMW M3 GT2 art car


[Source: BMW]

Continue reading BMW art car by Jeff Koons unveiled for 24 Hours of Le Mans [w/video]

BMW art car by Jeff Koons unveiled for 24 Hours of Le Mans [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 10:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>24 Hours of Le Mans24 hours of lemans24HoursOfLeMans3 series3Seriesbmwbmw art carBMW M3bmw m3 gt2BMW M3 GT2 Art CarBmwArtCarBmwM3BmwM3Gt2BmwM3Gt2ArtCarJeff KoonsJeff Koons Art CarJeff Koons BMW Art CarJeff Koons BMW M3 GT2 Art CarJeffKoonsJeffKoonsArtCarJeffKoonsBmwArtCarJeffKoonsBmwM3Gt2ArtCarWed, 02 Jun 2010 10:57:00 EST http://www.autoblog.com/feed/19500014/article-comments.xml http://www.autoblog.com/feed/2010/06/02/bmw-art-car-by-jeff-koons-unveiled-for-24-hours-of-le-mans-w-vi/19500014/article-detail.xml 19500014 http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/06/p90061292highresopt_thumbnail.jpg http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/06/p90061292highresopt.jpg <![CDATA[BMW Art Car to compete in 24 Hours of LeMans]]>http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/06/bmw-art-car-to-compete-in-24-hours-of-lemans/http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/06/bmw-art-car-to-compete-in-24-hours-of-lemans/http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/06/bmw-art-car-to-compete-in-24-hours-of-lemans/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,

Jeff Koons BMW M3 GT2 Art Car - Click above for high-res image

The 17th BMW art car is slated to follow in its ancestors footsteps by competing in this year's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car, an M3 GT2, has been worked over by artist Jeff Koons. Though critics first cried foul at the notion of putting Koons in the same league as Warhol, Calder and the like, the guy's preliminary sketches sound top notch.

Koons photographed multiple race cars at speed, then stretched the images and incorporated them into a massive digital collage. That collage is what's getting spread all over the M3 GT2's sexy flanks. Once finished, the car will get its debut at the Paris Center Pompidou before heading off to Le Mans to go fender to fender with the rest of the racing world.

The Paris Center Pompidou has hosted the BMW art car unveil since the center opened in 1977, where Roy Lichtenstein first showed off his fluid 320i. This year, the collage M3 GT2 will take the stage on June 1, and the car will boast the number 79 in tribute to Andy Warhol's 1979 M1. Press release after the jump.

[Source: BMW]

Continue reading BMW Art Car to compete in 24 Hours of LeMans

BMW Art Car to compete in 24 Hours of LeMans originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you're at all familiar with contemporary art, then you know that Jeff Koons is a triple, double-dog super megastar. Deeply controversial within the art world (Koons is a former stock broker that copied Andy Warhol's Factory techniques and hired an image consultant), Koons is perhaps best known for his three gold leaf sculptures of Michael Jackson and his chimp, Bubbles. Some of Koons' pieces have sold for more than $25 million - and if you ever find yourself at the Moderne Kunst in Berlin, be sure to check out the sexy sculptures of Koons and his then-wife la Cicciolina - the porn star and Italian member of parliament - doin' it.

BMW, for one, seems to have taken notice, and has asked Koons to build/style its next Art Car. As it happens, this is the 35th anniversary of the automaker's Art Car program. There aren't any details yet as to what Koons has in mind (nor even which BMW will get the treatment) but the car will be "revealed later in the year." Ironically, we've already speculated on what a Jeff Koons designed car might look and behave like. Regardless of the finished product, Koons joins a veritable who's who of contemporary modern artists that have turned out BMW Art Cars, including Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, and Alexander Calder. Press release after the jump.


Gallery: BMW Art Cars at L.A. County Museum of Art


[Source: BMW | Image: Mira Oberman/AFP/Getty Images]

Continue reading BMW picks Jeff Koons as artist for next Art Car

BMW picks Jeff Koons as artist for next Art Car originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No, really. If you didn't know, U2's front man and Africa activist Bono is a regular columnist at The New York Times. And he (too) has a top 10 list to kick off the new decade we now find ourselves living in. Bono first smartly apologizes for burdening our collective eyes and minds with yet another such list, before then presenting his.

Items found on his list include: a cap and trade system taxing every individual's right to pollute, protecting the intellectual rights of movie and television studios, a rock star teleportation scientist and eradicating rotavirus. All good and/or interesting stuff, no doubt, if not a little, um, predictable. Which may very well be why Bono stuck his car-related concern up on they very top of his list. That concern? "Return of the Automobile as a Sexual Object."

In short, Bono thinks modern four-door sedans are lame looking and laments the fact that minivans and SUVs are so widespread (and dull). He meditates on the decline of the sexy family car, pioneered during the U.S. auto industry's design heyday, circa 1946 to about 1971. Where are the curves, he asks, before stating, "In Ireland in the '70s, it was the E-Type Jag that made sense of puberty." A line, we should add, that we'll be stealing.

Bono then goes on to muse that the problem with modern car design might the practice of "design by committee," noting that, "rarely does majority rule produce something of beauty." We're with him so far, but then he gets a little fatuous. Essentially, Bono says that since the Obama Administration, "still holds the keys to the big automakers," they ought to be injecting some, "style fascists into the mix." Among those mentioned, Marc Newson, Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive, Frank Gehry and Jeff Koons. Luckily, we've got some insider knowledge about that last little bit. Make the jump for a slightly NSWF explanation of why this writer thinks that Bono's wrong.

[Source: The New York Times | Image: William West/AFP/Getty]

Continue reading PSA: Bono wants cars to bring sexy back

PSA: Bono wants cars to bring sexy back originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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