Which artist created the first BMW Art Car in 1975?

Alexander Calder created the first BMW Art Car in 1975. French racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain proposed turning a competition car into an artistic canvas, then commissioned his friend Calder to paint it.

Calder transformed a BMW 3.0 CSL with bold red, blue, yellow and white forms. Poulain raced the finished car in the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans, making the project both a gallery-style artwork and a functioning motorsport machine. Its appearance and public reception established the BMW Art Car Project.

Later artists used BMWs as moving canvases in very different ways. Roy Lichtenstein created the project’s second car in 1977, while Andy Warhol painted a BMW M1 in 1979. Jenny Holzer, David Hockney, Frank Stella and many others also contributed works. Those famous names can make the first artist easy to misremember, but Calder’s 1975 3.0 CSL is the project’s starting point. BMW’s Art Car collection has since included racing cars, road cars and conceptual vehicles.