art car

Volvo S60 Street Art Car Project at the Zurich Train Station

Commuters passing through the busy Zurich Bahnhof over the course of a week in February got a special treat. There Volvo set up its latest S60 luxury sedan against a white backdrop as an "art car" project, and invited ten graffiti artists to share their vision. The process was captured by camera at 10-second intervals to make a three-minute time-lapse video you can watch after the jump.

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Tags: art car, bahnhof, s60, switzerland, train station, volso s60, volvo, zurich, zurich bahnhof

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Fiat Rounds Out the Year of Art Cars at Exhibitalia

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Art

As the year draws to a close, we're inclined to unofficially name 2010 as the Year of the Art Car. Since we last changed our calendars, César's McLaren supercar went up for sale, Jeff Koons lent his brush to a BMW race car and an Aston Martin, Francoise Nielly painted the Citroën Survolt concept car, and Laurence Gartel did the same with a Tesla Roadster.

But the latter wasn't the only art car showcased at this year's Art Basel festival in Miami. At the four-day Exhibitalia event held there, Fiat led multiple artists to create works inspired by the Fiat 500. Some used parts of the car as their canvas, but one Christian Balzano transformed the entire vehicle into an art car. The last of the year? With mere weeks to go until 2011, we can only assume, but the new year will have a real task on its hands trying to top this one.

Gallery: Fiat 500 at Exhibitalia

Tags: 500, art basel, art basel 2010, art basel miami 2010, Art basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Miami Beach 2010, art car, exhibitalia, fiat

Tesla Roadster Art Car by Laurence Gartel

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Art

Though mankind has manipulated the former for far longer than the latter, art and electricity needn't exist in isolation from one another. That's what Laurence Gartel asserted with his digital creations in the 1970s, and what he's now done in the form of an art car.

Typically the domain of BMW, the Gartel art car uses an electric Tesla Roadster as its canvas. The eclectic masterpiece was created for and unveiled at the Art Basel festival last week in Miami, but you can take a closer look in the gallery below.

Gallery: Tesla Roadster Art Car by Laurence Gartel

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Tags: art basel, Art basel Miami Beach, art car, laurence gartel, tesla, tesla roadster

Citroen Survolt Art Car by Francoise Nielly

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Art

Artists themselves may prefer to drive vehicles spacious enough to transport their canvases, or more often than not, whatever they can afford. But an Art Car, as many of our regular readers could tell you, is something else entirely. BMW has been responsible for more than its fair share, but the latest automaker-artist collaboration comes from France.

French automaker Citroën has brought pop artist Francoise Nielly to reinterpret the color scheme of its Survolt, a diminutive electric concept sports car unveiled earlier this year in Geneva. The result is the multicolored show car you see here, which will be displayed at C42, Citroen's Champs-Elysées flagship showroom in Paris.

Gallery: Citroen Survolt Art Car by Francoise Nielly

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Tags: Art Car, art cars, Citroën, Citroën Survolt, Citroën Survolt Art Car by Francoise Nielly, citroen, Citroen Survolt, citroen survolt concept, francoise nielly

Spare Tire Cover by Damien Hirst

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Art

If you're enamored of the idea of an art car, but can't quite extend yourself to the likes of those priceless BMWs and McLarens, Damien Hirst may have the happy median you're looking for. The contemporary British artist has applied his world-renowned talents to a spare tire cover that can be mounted to your luxury sport-utility vehicle.

The "spin" design you see here is applied to the composite dish, mounted to a stainless steel band to cover the spare tire on the back of an SUV. The item is available for £900 ($1,390 USD), which may seem like a lot for a tire cover, but it's a far cry from the $527,000 which Hirst's hand-painted Audi A1 sold for at auction recently. Stop by Other Criteria for a closer look or to place your order.

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Tags: art car, damien hirst, hirst, other criteria, spare tire, sport-utility vehicle, suv

Aston Martin DBS Carbon Black by Jeff Koons

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Art

Earlier this summer my colleague Noah Joseph reported on the BMW M3 GT2 painted by famed artist Jeff Koons as part of BMW's renowned Art Car program. Now it seems Koons has adapted the design to the new limited edition Aston Martin Carbon Black DBS. Based on the top-of-the-line GT that serves as James Bond's ride of choice, the Carbon Black edition features a unique black paint process designed to deflect the light at different angles, plus lightweight carbon-Kevlar seats upholstered in black leather with silver stitching, piano black trim, special wheels and more. We're not sure why Koons' design would be applied over the special black finish, but there you have it. Koons' colorful pattern is meant to evoke "power, motion and bursting energy." The Aston was spotted in the Netherlands and is slated to participate in The Challenge 2010 race at the end of this month.

[via LuxuryLaunches]

Tags: art car, artist, Aston Martin, Aston Martin Carbon Black DBS, Aston Martin DBS, BMW, BMW art car, contemporary art, Jeff Koons, supercar

McLaren Art Car by César Tipped to Top €2 Million at Auction

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions

When automobiles break the seven-figure mark at auction, they're usually pre-war or even post-war classics. But a sportscar from the 90s? This one is an exception.

As it is, the McLaren F1 remains a highly coveted collectors item, pristine examples still commanding seven-figure price tags in their own right. A race-spec McLaren F1 GTR is an even more sought-after rarity. But even in this field, this particular example is rarer still.

After racing it at Le Mans in 1994, French industrialist Jean-Luc Maury-Laribiére handed his McLaren over to famed artist César. The result has a similar effect as BMW's own art cars, which makes sense considering that the McLaren is powered by BMW engines and enjoyed factory backing in its motorsport exploits. This one-of-a-kind example is set to cross the auction block during the Le Mans Classic on July 9, where auctioneers Artcurial Motors anticipates it will fetch between $2.5 and 3 million.

Gallery: McLaren F1 GTR art car by César

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Tags: art car, art cars, artcurial, artcurial motors, bmw art car, bmw art cars, césar, cesar, f1, f1 gtr, le mans, le mans classic, mclaren, mclaren F1, mclaren f1 gtr

BMW M3 GT2 Art Car by Jeff Koons

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Art, Sports

There's a great history to BMW's art cars. Over the past 35 years, sixteen such collaborations have been undertaken between the German automaker and famous artists. Among them were none other than Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. And now BMW has unveiled its latest.

The work of American artist Jeff Koons, this M3 GT2 race car was unveiled in Paris before heading to the 24 Hours of Le Mans next week where it will actually compete as one of the two cars BMW is fielding during this year's iconic race.

This isn't the first time, however, that a BMW art car has been used in an actual race: other notable examples included Alexander Calder's 1975 3.0 CSL and Jenny Holzer's 1999 V12 LMR. In fact many of the original art cars competed at Le Mans. Let's just hope that, like it predecessors, this one doesn't crash during the race.

Tags: 24 heures du mans, 24 hours of le mans, art car, art cars, bmw, bmw art car, bmw art cars, bmw m3 gt2, gt2, jeff koons, le mans, m3, me gt2

Custom Tramontana Supercar "Art" for Sale at $2.9 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Art

A unique customized Spanish Tramontana supercar (above) hand-painted by renowned artist Fernando Leal-Audirac is for sale in Milan via global online luxury marketplace JamesList for €2 million, or about $2.95 million. The twin-turbo Tramontana R, unveiled over at our sister site Autoblog earlier this year, has a V12 engine capable of 760 hp and a 0 -100 kph time of 3.6 seconds. Leal-Audirac used special metallic paints enriched with gold and the powder of precious gems - hence the pricetag - to paint the carbon fiber-bodied exotic auto, designed in homage to the famed Hispano-Suiza marque. The iridescent colors react to movement and light changing them from purple to cobalt blue, and from green to gold. The car is "the synthesis of the artist's poetic vision in which art, tradition, technique, design and technology coexist through a constant research, incarnating the charm, the myth and the dynamics of contemporaneity," the artists notes.

Tags: art car, ArtCar, artist, carbon fiber, CarbonFiber, custom car, CustomCar, Fernando Leal-Audirac, FernandoLeal-audirac, gold, JamesList, Spain, supercar, Tramontana

BMW Art Cars go on tour to LA, New York and Mexico

by Noah Joseph (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Events, Art

In 1975, BMW racing driver Hervé Poulain got the idea to invite an artist to paint his car. American artist Alexander Calder answered the call, giving birth to the BMW Art Car project, which has attracted the participation of some 16 renowned artists from around the world to use BMW automobiles as their canvas. The vehicles are housed in BMW's museum in Munich, but have been known to travel sporadically; their latest tour brings four of the most famous examples to North America. The Art Car creations of Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein (pictured above), and Robert Rauschenberg are on display now at the BP Entrance to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until February 24, before they head to the east coast to be displayed at New York's Grand Central Terminal from March 24 until April 6 and then southward to three locations in Mexico. The rolling works of art will be accompanied by a video documenting the history of the project and the artists at work, which you can view after the jump along with the images in the gallery below.

Gallery: BMW Art Cars