Picture

​Roy Lichtenstein BMW 320i, 1977

"I pondered on it for a long time and put as much into it as I possibly could."
"I wanted the lines I painted to be a depiction the road showing the car where to go," said Roy Lichtenstein commenting on his design of the BMW 320i. "The design also shows the countryside through which the car has travelled. One could call it an enumeration of everything a car experiences – only that this car reflects all of these things before actually having been on a road." And indeed – if one looks closer, one can perceive a passing landscape. The oversized "Benday Dots" are characteristic and reminiscent of Lichtenstein‟s world famous paintings of comic strips.
Roy Lichtenstein, who was born in New York in 1923, is considered to be one of the founders of American pop art. Until 1938 he painted portraits of jazz musicians, attended the "Art Students League", finally studying art in Ohio. His earlier works range from cubism to expressionism. He did not become interested in trivial culture such as comics and advertising until the late fifties. His pop art paintings were created in 1961. These were followed by caricatures of the "American way of life", experiments with well-known works of art, sculptures and films. He died in New York in 1997.
The BMW 320i group 5 racing version
  • four-cylinder inline engine
  • 4 valves per cylinder
  • twin overhead camshafts
  • displacement: 2000 cm³
  • power output: 300 bhp
  • top speed: 257 km/h
After its completion, Roy Lichtenstein‟s Art Car was able to celebrate its premiere twice – as a work of art at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and as a racing car in the 24-hour race at Le Mans in June 1977. The car was driven by Hervé Poulain and Marcel Mignot from France. The car with the number 50 achieved a ninth place in the overall rating and finished first in its class.  


 

BMW Art Cars on display by Frank Stella (1976 - BMW 3.0 CSL) and Alexander Calder (1975 BMW 3.0 CSL) on Wednesday December 5th, 2012 in the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens as part of Art Basel Miami Beach 2012. (John Christie/newscast) (12/2012)Mediabox.Photo line.
Frank Stella BMW 3.0 CSL, 1976
Video.
 
Frank Stella BMW 3.0 CSL, 1976 
Video, H.264
Frank Stella BMW 3.0 CSL, 1976"My design is like a blueprint transferred onto the bodywork."
When designing the BMW 3.0 CSL, Stella disassociated himself from his random style to seek inspiration from the technical fascination of the racing coupé. He created a black and white square grid, its precision reminiscent of oversized graph paper. This graph paper pattern ran across the entire bodywork, formally capturing and accurately describing every curve and every indentation. The design of the Art Car marked the turning point into three-dimensionality.
At the early age of 14, Frank Stella, who was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1936, began studying art at the Phillips Academy in Andover, USA. After studying history at Princeton University, USA, he set up a studio in New York. It was then that the "Transitional Paintings" and "Black Paintings" emerged. At the age of 23, he held his own exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the sixties his "post-abstract" pop art colour paintings took their place in art history. From 1960 to 1980 Stella exhibited his work all over the world. He later devoted most of his time to relief paintings.
The BMW 3.0 CSL
  • six-cylinder inline engine
  • 4 valves per cylinder
  • twin overhead camshafts
  • displacement: 3210 cm³
  • power output: 750 bhp
  • top speed: 341 km/h
In 1976, Stella‟s coupé took part in the 24-hour race at Le Mans – a particularly exceptional premiere for the work of such an ardent motor racing enthusiast. Unfortunately, however, as a result of technical problems, the car did not achieve a placing, as was also the case in the 500 km race at Dijon on 5th September 1976.  


​