Continuing in the traditional partnership with famous artists such as Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol; BMW announced a revival of the series of speeding canvasses also known as race cars with Jeff Koons as this year’s artist.
BMW will enter the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans with a group of two M3 GT2 cars. the #79 in livery and interior designed by Koons, with drivers Andy Priaulx, Dirk Muller, Dirk Werner. And in the #78 with drivers Jorg Muller, Augusto Farfus, and Uwe Falzen.
Koons work is on exhibit in leading art museums around the world. The first BMW art car, designed by Calder, debuted at the 1975 Le Mans.
In 1977 Roy Lichtenstein’s car was premiered at Paris’ Centre Pompidou, and in that tradition, Koons will debut his full design there on June 1 this year. A preliminary concept was shown in New York on Tuesday in Koons “signature saturated hues on a black ground set against the car’s silver interior.” “I want to capture the essence of energy,” Koons said at the conference and “where the energy comes from.” He described the graphic “different forms of energy, (like) sound barriers being broken to different bursts of light, bending the light, to air flows explosive energy.” Koons told Auto123.com he’d been to Sebring this year with the BMW group and spent hours online viewing paint schemes on all types of racers, not just LeMans cars, but, “all different classes of cars, drag strip racing and NASCAR.” Keying on motion he continuing he was inspired by “the parts of the car you’d find energy being depicted pushing off this way” (he indicated with a motion of his hands the rear wheel well); you can see the energy.” In the press release he explained “there is a lot of power under that hood and I want to let my ideas transcend with the car –it’s really to connect with that power.” He also told Auto123.com he was given free rein in the design process. While speeds have slowed a bit, due to the chicane on the Mulsanne straight Koons wasn’t worried that fans would not be able to appreciate his rolling art work in a leisurely manner. In fact he said “I think it’s exciting. When I was at Sebring I timed the viewing moments, how many seconds,” the cars could be seen. “The car will tour with the other art cars. It will be sitting still. “I want to have the same feel of the energy when it’s sitting still.” Mario Theissen, the head of BMW’s Motorsports Director (best known in the days of his company’s involvement in Formula One), was on hand to give his support. He told auto123.com that he’d only been to LeMans once before and BMW won. So he’s hoping to keep that winning percentage alive this June.
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