julie mehretu’s BMW art car premieres at the centre pompidou in paris for the first time

20th BMW art car by julie mehretu arrives in paris

BMW unveils its 20th BMW Art Car project by American painter Julie Mehretu at the Centre Pompidou in Paris for the first time. On June 28th, 2023, BMW announced that the American painter would create the 20th BMW Art Car at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. After that, BMW handed over its M Hybrid V8 race car to the American painter as her canvas. The thought that played with Julie Mehretu’s mind when she saw the car in the studio was what would happen if the M Hybrid V8 became a moving painting, a vehicle that, when it bolted through the tracks and streets, would seem as if the painting dripped into the car?

She pictured a maelstrom of imagery and as she worked with BMW’s designers and engineers, those layers of paintings began to carpet the M Hybrid V8 race car, establishing the 20th BMW Art Car. ‘I don’t think of this car as something you would exhibit,’ says Julie Mehretu. ‘I am thinking of it as something that will race in Le Mans. It’s a performative painting. My BMW Art Car was created in close collaboration with motorsport and engineering teams,’ says Julie Mehretu. ‘The BMW Art Car is only completed once the race is over.’

images courtesy of BMW | photo by Tereza Mundilová © BMW AG

race car inspired by julie mehretu’s artwork in venice

Stark blue light strips at the front glow as the 20th BMW Art Car speeds away, bringing Julie Mehretu’s artworks to life through the digitally altered photographs forming abstract visuals, layers of dot grids, neon-colored veils, and the black markings that have long marked her signature style. The American painter transformed a 2D image into a sculpture race car, inspired by the colors and forms of her own monumental painting, ‘Everywhen’ (2021 – 2023) which is currently on view at her major retrospective at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice (this artwork will become part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York).

photo by Tereza Mundilová © BMW AG

20th BMW art car to compete at 24 Hours of Le Mans

3D mapping helped Julie Mehretu and the BMW Art Car team realize these abstract images. Once done, they were transferred to the contours of the BMW M Hybrid V8 race car, and because of the elaborate foiling on the vehicle, the race car can compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In fact, BMW Motorsport drivers Sheldon van der Linde (RSA), Robin Frijns (NED) and René Rast (GER) will enter the 20th BMW Art Car with starting number 20 at the Circuit de la Sarthe in June 15th. ‘I went to see the BMW M Hybrid V8 race in Daytona, and this experience was overwhelming. When it goes out on the racetrack now, so many dreams will be fulfilled,’ says Julie Mehretu.

BMW announced Julie Mehretu for the 20th BMW Art Car in 2023 | photo by André Josselin © BMW AG

Julie Mehretu’s BMW Art Car will also make an appearance at the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este in Lake Como on May 24th, 2024, on its way to Le Mans. As part of the exhibition for historic vehicles organized by the BMW Group and the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este, it will be Julie Mehretu herself who will present the 20th edition of the BMW Art Car Collection. During this year’s official FIA World Endurance Championship races, the BMW M Hybrid V8 will take on high-caliber competition in the Hypercars category. The car will also compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the first BMW M Motorsport prototype to do so since the BMW V12 LMR, which won the classic race in 1999.