Art that moves you: BMW announces Jeff Koons collaboration
BMW is building its first production Art Car with the help of Jeff Koons. A limited run of BMW M850i XDrive Gran Coupes will be on sale, each painted in a design by Koons that takes multiple layers of paint and 285 hours to apply.
Koons first collaborated with BMW on an M3 GT2 Art Car in 2010 which competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He joined artists including Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and Roy Lichtenstein to turn race and road cars into rolling works of art. In 1995 David Hockney painted a BMW 850 but this new venture will be the first time anyone will be able to buy one.
At the project’s announcement Koons revealed very little saying only, “I was thinking very intensely about it: What is the essence of the 8 Series Gran Coupe? What is the essence of power? How to create something that exemplifies all the energy of the BMW 8 Series that is also able to touch upon the human element?”
BMW design boss Adrian van Hooydonk added, “Car Design takes inspiration from Art and Engineering and turns that into highly emotional experiences. Working with Jeff Koons again to jointly create something truly special is a great pleasure. He is one of the greatest artists of our time and one of the most inspiring and engaging human beings to work with.”
BMW has disclosed that eleven different colors ranging from blue to silver, yellow and black will feature on the exterior paintwork. Inside the car will have a cupholder lid with special edition badging and the artist’s engraved signature, and seats in the red and blue colors of the BMW M division.
The design will be unveiled in full at Frieze Los Angeles in February 2022, but you can bet that collectors are already fighting to get their deposits in, despite there being no word of pricing and only hints at what the finished car will look like.
