Two iconic BMW Art Cars made a spectacular appearance at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, celebrating fifty years of the groundbreaking Art Car program. Andy Warhol's legendary 1979 BMW M1 Group 4 and Julie Mehretu's cutting-edge 2024 BMW M Hybrid V8 graced the coastal links of the renowned automotive showcase on August 17th. The annual concours, often described as a beauty pageant for cars, serves as the grand finale of Monterey Car Week and attracts the world's most extraordinary vehicles.
Over two hundred cars were displayed against the dramatic backdrop of California's rocky coastline, drawing enthusiastic spectators from around the globe. Among all the remarkable vehicles, the BMW Art Cars stood out as an overwhelming highlight, with attendees frequently discussing their significance throughout the crowded show field. Warhol's Art Car, in particular, has gained recognition as perhaps the most valuable car in the world, with estimated values ranging from $60 million to $200 million.
BMW's presence at Pebble Beach marked the beginning of the North American leg of the Art Car World Tour, which has seen Warhol's masterpiece travel across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia throughout this milestone anniversary year. The iconic creation, distinguished by its gestural brushstrokes, arrived at Pebble Beach following recent exhibitions in Dubai and Sweden. The car's international journey included a debut appearance in the Middle East at Art Dubai in April, followed by a showing at the Aurora Scandinavian Concours in late June, where it was accompanied by three other historic BMW Art Cars: Alexander Calder's 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL (the first in the series), Roy Lichtenstein's 1977 BMW 320i, and Jeff Koons' 2010 BMW M3 GT2.
Andy Warhol's BMW M1 represents a radical intervention in automotive art, serving as the fourth commission in the BMW Art Car series. The legendary pop artist painted the entire car in just twenty-eight minutes, applying approximately thirteen pounds of paint directly to the vehicle's surface with visible brushstrokes. Unlike traditional automotive customization, Warhol eschewed preparatory sketches or scale models, creating the artwork through spontaneous expression. French racing driver and Art Car program initiator Hervé Poulain compared the live painting process to a performance art piece. Beyond its museum presence, the car actually competed once at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979, emphasizing the dual identity of Art Cars as both functional racing machines and valuable artworks.
Julie Mehretu's BMW M Hybrid V8 race car, designated as the 20th Art Car in the series, continues the program's legacy into the digital age. Her creation reimagines the vehicle as a moving painting through the use of digitally altered photographs, abstract markings, and layered veils of color. The artwork builds upon her monumental canvas "Everywhen" (2021-2023), which measures 10 feet by 10 feet and is currently entering the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. Mehretu successfully translated the dense, gestural abstraction created with ink and acrylic onto the racing prototype, maintaining the integrity of her artistic vision.
Mehretu's Art Car has already established an impressive international presence, debuting at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2024 and appearing at the Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este in Lake Como before its racing deployment. The car competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2024, with Mehretu describing the project as a "performative painting" that achieves completion through the actual act of racing.
The pairing of Warhol's late-1970s experiment with Mehretu's digital-age intervention at Pebble Beach powerfully demonstrates the remarkable breadth and evolution of BMW's Art Car program across five decades. Their presentation at this centerpiece event of Monterey Car Week coincides with another significant milestone: BMW's fifty years of operations in the United States. Following the concours, both Art Cars will continue their North American tour with planned appearances on the East Coast, including exhibitions at The Bridge in New York and the Hagerty Drivers Foundation's Cars at the Capital exhibition in Washington, D.C. The ongoing Art Car World Tour continues to showcase how these unique works of art seamlessly transition between racetracks, prestigious museums, and public settings, bringing automotive artistry to diverse audiences worldwide.
