The 17th BMW Art Car

The 17th BMW Art Car is a homage to speed, power, and pure passion for racing. Inspired by images from the world of motorsport, Jeff Koons – himself an avid driver – produced a design that captured the dynamics of the BMW M3 GT2 in bright colours and pulsating streaks of light. Vivid clusters of lines suggesting speed and kinetic energy stretch across the bodywork, while graphic explosions at the rear symbolise the raw power of the engine. Koons selected 20 eye-popping Pantone colours, which were reproduced as accurately as possible using state-of-the-art digital printing techniques. The search for the brightest and most luminous possible white as a base colour on the special vinyl wrap proved particularly challenging. In this Art Car, Koons transposed his typical aesthetic of flawlessly glossy surfaces to the racetrack.

Born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania, Jeff Koons is one of the most successful artists of the present day and a leading exponent of Neo-Pop. He studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, yet he also spent a few years working as a Wall Street broker. Koons later applied his interest in the laws of the market to his work as an artist. In the mid-1980s, he began refining everyday objects and figures into works of art, replicating them in precious metals and other valuable materials – most famously in “Rabbit”, a stainless-steel replica of an inflatable toy rabbit.

Following its world premiere on 2 June 2010 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Jeff Koons's Art Car competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 12 June 2010. Numbered 79 – a tribute to Andy Warhol's Art Car from 1979 – the car was driven by a team comprising Andy Priaulx (UK), Dirk Müller (DE), and Dirk Werner (DE). It soon became a fan favourite but was plagued with technical problems and had to drop out after only five hours of racing.