Cars as canvases for artist-friends (no one has ever been paid): from Calder in Liechtenstein to Jeff Koons, the BMW exhibition in Milan

Of
Silvia Nani

Until 8 January at the ADI Design Museum you can admire eight works from the “BMW Art Car Collection”, created 50 years ago

If you come in these days (until 8/1/2026) in the headquarters of the ADI Design Museum, in Milan – one of the temples of this discipline – you might be surprised to see lined up in single file in the entrance corridor 8 BMW cars decorated like works of art. Which indeed they are, because these cars, together with 12 others, have effectively become canvases for very famous artists, who over the last 50 years have transformed them into moving artistic objects. Giving rise to BMW Art Car Collection.

The exhibition at the ADI Design Museum represents the last stage in the celebration of this half century of unique pieces: jealously guarded in BMW headquarters museum in Munichin 2025 they traveled for the occasion to more than 40 different places around the world. However, always in a small selection, chosen from time to time by the curatore Thomas Girstin his role as head of BMW Group Corporate Engagement.
In Milan the exhibition is the richest of all, with 8 cars out of 20 on display: a further reason not to miss the opportunity to admire them.

Let’s take a step back, because the BMW Art Car Collection has a compelling story born from a dual passion – art and speed – Of Hervé Poulain, racing car driver and art enthusiast (he was an auctioneer at the time and in 2002 he would have been part of the founding consortium of the Artcurial auction house, today one of the most important in the world) who had a fixed obsession: competing with a car customized by a famous artist. In 1975 his dream finally came trueand it is BMW that welcomes that disruptive idea that leverages pure artistic creativity, without any marketing purpose.

The first author chosen by Poulain himself, in affinity with the concept of movement, was Alexander Calder, famous for his kinetic art sculptures, which transformed the BMW 3.0 CSL racing car into a never-before-seen masterpiece. You can already imagine the public’s amazement in seeing that car with its large red, yellow, white and blue backgrounds at the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. At the wheel was, of course, Hervé Poulain. The result of the race wasn’t very brilliant, but it doesn’t matter: it mattered having started a cultural operation that has remained unique.

Why no artist, not even those who came later, was ever paid (“It is a contribution made for friendship, fun or for the pleasure of becoming part of this modern Pantheon”, Poulain explained) and none of the cars are never been put up for sale but only given on display to interested institutions.

Once you have crossed the entrance to the exhibition at the ADI Design Museum, to admire Calder’s BMW you have to walk along the entire large corridor of the exhibition, and the risk is the alienation effect, because each car, thanks to the artistic intervention of names of the caliber of Jeff Koons, Sandro Chia, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, just to name a few, it transports us to an unreal world, suspended between museum and fantasy. Yet these are indeed one-of-a-kind masterpieces but they remain to all intents and purposes cars, made for racing or racing. So, real functional design objects, no more and no less than the others permanently exhibited in the ADI museum.

Continuing along the path, you come across the «work” by Frank Stella, created in 1976: it is the same BMW as Calder’s intervention, but the effect is completely different due to the graph paper-effect black and white graphic motif which, the artist himself said, would have stood out among the colored vehicles in the starting pits at Le Mans. The testimonies tell the story difficulty in reproducing that regular lattice design on a curved surface what the bodywork of the BMW 3.0 CSL was like. A curiosity: this work was entrusted to Walter Maurer, legendary BMW painting master, who replicated the work created by the artist by hand on a model.

The same happened the following year with the BMW 320i Turbo of the Pop Art master Roy Lichtenstein customized by a dotted pattern inspired by the car’s route in the race and a sun on the horizon, seen from the driver’s perspective. The intention, Lichtenstein himself explained with a hint of humor, was distract and disorient other competitors. It is not proven that this was the reason, but in fact “his” BMW excelled in its class at Le Mans, finishing second in its category and ninth overall.

The exhibition at the ADI Design Museum therefore takes a time leap to the 90s. It should be noted that the BMW Art Car Collection, by virtue of its cultural nature, is not linked to a precise chronological sequence: the artistic creation arises from a meeting of affinities. It can happen quickly, or it can not happen for years. For example for Sandro Chia, author in 1992 of the customization of the BMW M3 GTR racing prototype – a dense series of faces intent on looking at the car with admiration, as he himself explains -, the occasion occurred by his will: it was he who proposed himself.

The 1990s also marked the beginning of collaborations with female artists. The exhibition presents three of them: the South African painter Esther Mahlangu, whose 1991 BMW 5 series stands out for its typical colorful geometric patterns, the artist of words Jenny Holzer, author in 1999 of a BMW V12 LMR for the 24 Hours of Le Mans decorated with his explosive phrases, and the most recent, the BMW M HYbrid V8 of abstract painter Julie Mehretutransformed in 2024 into a performance art work. Arrived in Milan at the photo finish on the opening day of the exhibition, fresh from a busy program of appearances around the world.

Last artist protagonist of the exhibition, Jeff Koons with his 2010 BMW M3 GT2: bright colors for a brushstroke pattern that seem to project along the entire bodywork, evoking speed and dynamism. Perhaps the most engaging of the cars on display. Along with one that isn’t here: the BMW M1 di Andy Warhol, painted personally by the artist with colors and brush, and an overwhelming enthusiasm, in just 28 minutes. To see it, mark these dates: from 1/28 to 2/1/2026, in Paris, at the major classic car event Retromobile, it will be exhibited with the other six BMW Art Cars that took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the last stop of this year-long celebratory art tour. It’s worth the trip.