BMW Art Cars return to New York

BMW Art Cars continues their tour and they stopped this week in New York City. Just over a month ago, the BMW Art Cars were displayed at Los Angeles Country Museum of Art and we had the opportunity to show you some of the most amazing photos.

But since we couldn’t make it to NYC, our friend Jonathan Spira, a long time admirer of the BMW Art Cars was there to snap some photos and share his impressions. It is also worth mentioning that Jonathan was present at the original opening in 1986, so it is not surprising to sense his admiration for these cars in the article. The new BMW Z4 used as a paintbrush in the new “Expression of Joy” campaign, is also displayed at the Grand Central Terminal.

“The BMW Art Cars were first exhibited in the United States in 1986 at the BMW Gallery at 320 Park Avenue in a show called BMW And Five American Artists, and again in 1990 at the same venue. (With 7,000 square feet of exhibit space, the BMW Gallery at 320 Park Avenue was established in the 1980s as a North American beachhead for the BMW Museum. By 1991, it had been converted into a showroom, and it closed in 1998 when BMW consolidated dealership operations in the city.)

Today, four of those five original Art Cars returned to New York (Alexander Calder’s car, which was also the first Art Car, is not part of the exhibit) at an exhibit at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. The cars are accompanied by a 30-by-40-foot canvas by Robin Rhode, a South African artist presently living in Berlin, who used a new (E89) Z4 roadster equipped with paint dispensers behind its wheels to create “Expression Of Joy,” a unique and contemporary painting, by driving around on its surface; the painted surface was then disassembled into panels which can be reassembled in various ways. Some were used as the floor for the launch of the new Z4 in Spain, while others were hung on the wall of the restaurant at that launch.”