BMW and Jeff Koons are building 99 Art Cars | GRR
World-renowned artist Jeff Koons is back up to his old tricks, defacing BMWs. This is the latest BMW art car, the M850i xDrive Gran Coupe. What’s more, this isn’t a one-off. You could own one of the 99 cars they’re building with Koons’ pop art paint appointment.
With eleven different exterior colours, each car takes over 200 hours to paint, with production possible at a rate of just four a week. A stunt the art cars may be but it’s an impressive exercise of the paint capabilities of the BMW Group plants in Dingolfing and Landshut. Specialised professionals in the application of the details often needed magnifying glasses to get the paints applied perfectly.
Each car will come with a large-format certificate signed by Koons, as well as BMW’s CEO Oliver Zipse. “My edition of the BMW 8 Series is my dream car,” Koons said.
“It is very special to me and I’ve wanted to create a special edition BMW for a long time. On the car, the lines are getting bigger on their journey from the hood towards the trunk, creating a sense of forward movement just as the ‘POP!’ and the vapour thrust design elements do.
“The blue color resembles the vastness of space and I like the idea of the car being a global car. What matters is how we relate to each other and our awareness of everything we are surrounded by. For the driver and all passengers, there is a heightened state of pleasure. This is what my car has to offer.”
BMW art cars now span a near 50-year history, across 20 artists going back to 1975. Koons himself has of course created an art car before, with the BMW M3 GT2 of 2010 that raced at Le Mans. We wonder what the next art car will be and indeed, who will it be by? BMW Art Car NFT anyone?