Art Basel, the most prominent gathering of artists and gallery reps from around the world to see American soil, will bring together its usual mix of modern art greats and emerging talents to Miami this weekend. But, thanks to BMW, there’s still something for gearheads to admire.
As part of its long-running Art Car project, BMW used this year’s Art Basel Miami to unveil its 19th piece of rolling sculpture — the BMW Art Car by John Baldessari. The artist put his personal touch on a BMW M6 GTLM, the 585 horsepower, track only race car 585 hp.
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Baldessari is a veteran of as the Los Angeles art scene and a successful champion of both modernism and minimalism. A look at the car shows his commitment to primary and complimentary colors and his use of a car within a car to inspire a sense of movement. The artist himself ignited and supervised the design of the car with BMW engineers in early November at the BMW Body & Paint Training Center West, California.
In his official statement from the car’s Miami debut, Baldessari said: “I have done only one work in my life involving a car before, and that was an image of a car. So for the BMW Art Car project, I entered uncharted territory, not just in terms of the subject, but also moving from two to three-dimensional art…The ideas all came 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. Considering the car as an icon of contemporary life, my concept turned out playfully satirical, but it also highlights some of the trademark ideas that I use.”
The car will remain on public display until the closing of Art Basel. Then, the machine must go to work on the race track of Rolex 24 at Daytona, January 28-29, 2017.
