Boys and their toys: in this case, it’s artist Jeff Koons playing with a BMW sports car. This morning the car company unveiled a Koons prototype for its 17th art car after an 11 year absence from the Le Mans endurance race. The painted car, a M3 GT2 coupe with silver interior, will debut at the Centre Pompidou on June 1; in the meantime, click through for a preview of Koons’s graphics for the car, which he describes as “inspired by the speed and power of race cars in motion, evocative of power, motion and light.”
Koons isn’t the only blue-chip artist to design a BMW paint job for trotting out at Le Mans: the first collab in 1975 featured none other than Alexander Calder, while other noteworthy participants included Andy Warhol, whose 1979 racer was the only car to be personally painted by the artist’s hand (well, Factory) — all others have been conceptualized by the artist and then carried out by BMW’s own factory.
Jeff Koons mockup for the BMW M3 GT2 Art Car; at left, toasting with Jim O’Donnell, President of BMW North America.
Jeff Koons is no stranger to decorating large vessels of transportation with his trademark pop stylings. His 2009 design for collector Dakis Joannou’s personal yacht (Joannou: perhaps you’ve heard of him?) is based on “dazzle painting” camouflage techniques from World War II.