Congratulations to the winner!
It was in the second decade of the 20th century that painter and designer Sonia Terk Delaunay decorated a Citröen B12 to match a dress she had designed. She is considered to be the forerunner of what we would later come to know as the Art Car.
In 1967, Réalités magazine, in order to raise funds for the French Foundation for Medical Research, invited five artists to customise cars from five of the world's largest manufacturers: Daf for Carlos Cruz-Diez, Simca 1000 for Agam (Yaacov Gibstein), Opel Kadett for Victor Vasarely, Matra 530 for Sonia Terk Delaunay and Renault 4 for Arman.
Although Porsche presented cars decorated by Porsche design chief Tony Lapin at the Le Mans 24h in 1970 (The Hippe Car) and 1971 (The Pink Pig), it was in 1975 that auctioneer and racing driver Hervé Poulain created a real relationship with the visual arts when he commissioned his friend Alexander Calder to do a special paint job for his BMW 3.0 CSL for the Le Mans 24h that year.
Enthusiastic about the project, BMW motosport director Jochen Neerpasch, also a keen art lover, followed it up by inviting artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. BMW has continued this idea to the present day with the most recent projects being by Cao Fei, John Baldessari and Jeff Koons.
Apart from BMW, several brands have invited artists to decorate some of their models, but never from a collection perspective, like the BMW Art Car Project.
In the 20th century, several artists have used the car, both as a subject and as a creative object, and at Balaclava Noir, we like to consider the Art Car as a canvas on which the artist paints. In 2022, it will finally become possible for us to realize a project that we had long had in the drawer, to create our own Art Car, and for that, the partners that accompany us, Go Factory and Wrap & Cover, are of enormous importance.