Image: BMW Group / BMW Welt, Munich
BMW Welt in Munich is presenting all 20 vehicles in the BMW Art Car Collection together for the first time, marking the collection’s 50th anniversary. The exhibition brings the series’ custom-designed cars into one location, from Alexander Calder’s first BMW Art Car, created in 1975, to Julie Mehretu’s latest contribution from 2024.
The presentation traces five decades of collaboration between BMW and internationally recognised artists. Among the participants represented are Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, A. R. Penck, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari and Jeff Koons. Their interventions transform production-based vehicles into works positioned at the intersection of contemporary art, design, engineering and motorsport, and several of the cars also raced in period, including at Le Mans.
The collection began with Calder’s 1975 design and developed through a sequence of artist commissions involving different models and approaches. The vehicles on view are described by the organisers as “rolling sculptures”, a designation that reflects the collection’s unusual status between the gallery, the museum and the road. Rather than presenting paintings or sculptures alongside automotive objects, the exhibition places the cars themselves at the centre of the display.
A particular focus of the Munich presentation is Ólafur Elíasson’s frozen “BMW H2R Project”. Built on a hydrogen prototype, the work has been shown publicly as a complete frozen installation only three times since its premiere in 2007. BMW Welt notes that continuing high temperatures require additional conservation measures, so access to the piece is managed in small groups.
The exhibition forms the finale of the BMW Art Car World Tour, the collection’s global anniversary tour, and returns the cars to the place where the project began. Its Munich presentation is therefore both a commemorative gathering and a temporary consolidation of works that are more often encountered separately. The range of artists involved also places the project within a broader history of postwar and contemporary art, from Calder and Lichtenstein to Mehretu.
‘BMW Art Cars – 20 Artists, 50 Years of Innovation. Reunited at BMW Welt’ is on view at BMW Welt in Munich from 29 July until 31 August 2026. Admission is free and the exhibition opens daily from 9am to 6pm, with last entry at 5.45pm; guided tours are offered in German and English.
