The India Art Fair, considered India’s largest art bonanza, is scheduled to take place for 30 January 2020, till 2nd February 2020. Besides quality art from around the world and India being showcased on this platform, a major attraction for visitors is the presence of the BMW Art Car, a sports model from the brand painted over by one of the world’s leading artists, which is part of the automobile giant’s way of exhibiting BMW as a culture brand that is intent on giving back to societies where it does business.
So far, the BMW Art Car Collection has clocked a cache of 19 cars that have initially competed on the race track before being painted over by leading artists from around the world. Thus a new car model painted over will travel from the BMW Museum in Munich to New Delhi for the forthcoming India Art Fair, 2020.
The tradition of painted BMW car models goes back to the early 1970s when the German artist Gerhard Richter gave the company three large works . Thereafter the artist Alexander Calder painted the first BMW Art Car that Jeff Koons had raced in Le Mans, in 2010. The race car number ‘79’ is emblazoned on its body. Other legends who have painted these cars include Andy Warhol and Olafur Eliasson, among others.
Another India-BMW link will be unearthed this year, with the launch of the BMW Art Journey initiative that offers artists worldwide an opportunity to visit anywhere in the world and paint. This year’s chosen artist Lu Yang from China will be coming to India to research and paint the traditional dance form of Kerala Kathakali. This is incredibly exciting for all the stakeholders.
