Sunday 4th August 2019

BMW M1 Art Car | Pic of the Week

40 years since Warhol added colour to the M1, a talented snapper has taken these stunning photographs

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It’s been 40 years since Andy Warhol put a paint brush to that BMW M1 Procar, creating what many consider to be the greatest of all BMW Art Cars and one of the most daring examples of automotive creativity. This M1’s history is therefore immense, what with its exterior having been finished by one of the most respected artists of the 20^th century. Not to mention the fact that it wore his design of vivid, hand-painted colours to finish second in class at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans.

It helps, too, that the M1 itself remains one of the most evocative BMWs to have ever been produced, with motorsport in its homologated veins and an unforgettable six-cylinder soundtrack produced by its mid-mounted, 470hp 3.5-litre. Let us refer you to that onboard video from a Time for Coffee post from back in March for a full demonstration to jog any blurred memories…

In the run up to Art Car Number Four’s 40-year milestone, BMW called for photographers to capture their best images of the racer. The winning portfolio comes from 29-year-old snapper Stephan Bauer, who parked the M1 in an abandoned factory in Cologne to take these spectacular images. The light, the shadows and the atmosphere captured with all that mist all serves to further accentuate the dramatic design of this gorgeous Procar. We dare you not to want one of the three images supplied here on your desktop background…

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[Nerdherder]

Oooff... Did something go wrong in post production or is it just my screen? (i tries downloads of all provided resolutions..)

[C.MW]

Art? What have they done to this beautiful car. More like graffiti to me.

[AlexFell93]

dibbers006 said:

Let's take photos of a famous piece of automotive art where 80% of the shot is generic warehouse.

Any close details or vivid features highlighted? Nope. How about smoke instead.

It's like Michael Bay took a picture of a car park in the 90s for a cigarette advert FFS.

Warhol's studio was known as 'The Factory' so there's a good reason why you might photograph his art car in an old factory. Plus there's an abundance of photos of BMW art cars in clean studios if that's your thing.

I'd say whoever took these shots is handy with a camera and could do with a little less flack from the armchair critics.

[herebebeasties]

Doesn't it have the wrong wheels? Thought this ran on those gorgeous, dished, slotted ones?

Edit to add:

Edited by herebebeasties on Monday 5th August 21:44

[herebebeasties]

Also, of the original set, I'd probably pick this one:

[dgmx5]

herebebeasties said:

Also, of the original set, I'd probably pick this one:

Agreed. The colour balance and clarity look far better in this shot. Not sure whether in re-sizing for use as a wallpaper there has been some over correction, but the photos in the article do not look very good technically with a tendency towards the overuse of HDR seen about a decade ago.

Although shooting this car in an abandoned factory is a good artistic choice for the reasons given above and the composition seems fine to me, given it is a static shot a great photographer should have been able to use the ambient lighting or added to it without producing such a technically poor photo.

Armchair critic? Certainly, and one without the photographer's skills set, but I have seen much better photographs produced than this. CHeck out http://www.kenbrownart.com/cars although his best work is studio based and a very different style to the present subject.

[rdjohn]

Easily the worst of the Art cars. The Gp5 CSL Graphics car by Frank Stella is easily the best, but it never leaves the BMW museum.

Visitors to the current Art Car exhibition in the Le Mans museum have to make do with this beast. Which obviously inspired Warhol’s efforts.

Interesting story here http://www.speedhunters.com/2012/07/to-the-batmobi...

Edited by rdjohn on Wednesday 7th August 19:35

[Pericoloso]

Is that ^^^ one even an Art Car ?

Doesn't look very arty to me.

The display of Art Cars in the City of London during 2012 Olympics was awesome.

[Miserablegit]

Pericoloso said:

Is that ^^^ one even an Art Car ?

Doesn't look very arty to me.

The display of Art Cars in the City of London during 2012 Olympics was awesome.

Yes,
I stumbled across that in a nondescript car park in Shoreditch at the time.

[g3org3y]

Pericoloso said:

Is that ^^^ one even an Art Car ?

Doesn't look very arty to me.

The display of Art Cars in the City of London during 2012 Olympics was awesome.

No, the green Gosser Beer liveried CSL isn't an Art Car.

Best Art Car is the Lichtenstein 320i imo.


(I believe this photo is from the aforementioned Art Car exhibition in Shoreditch).

The most recent Art Car, an M6 GTLM is really disappointing.

[Pericoloso]

Yes ,that Group 5 320 pic looks like it is from the 2012 display,

I seem to have lost all my pics from that day ,and most of 2012 and 13.

ETA....I have seen it in Munich since then though.

Edited by Pericoloso on Thursday 8th August 00:53

[Lewis Kingston]

herebebeasties said:

Doesn't it have the wrong wheels? Thought this ran on those gorgeous, dished, slotted ones?

Edited by herebebeasties on Monday 5th August 21:44

I would hazard a guess that they're the same BBS wheels – but, in the recent photoshoot, it is missing its turbofans (the slotted covers).

Edited by Lewis Kingston on Thursday 8th August 01:02

[jumare]

Pericoloso said:

Yes ,that Group 5 320 pic looks like it is from the 2012 display,

I seem to have lost all my pics from that day ,and most of 2012 and 13.

ETA....I have seen it in Munich since then though.

Edited by Pericoloso on Thursday 8th August 00:53

Definitely from the 2012 exhibition, I found out about it and happened to be going to London for business so went along late afternoon. The Warhol car was one of the least interesting. They gave away a book about the Art Cars, Warhol painted the M1 in 28 minutes using a 'crude' paintbrush and his finger (he did have a painted model to refer to), oh and it was painted in Munich.

My favourites are the Litctenstein 320 and Calder & Stella CSL 3.0's, the Koons M3 is impressive as well and I like the slogans on the Holzer V12 LMR car, "The unobtainable is invariably attractive", "Protect me from what I want"

[Miserablegit]

Not a quality photo as it was taken on a vintage iphone and I might have been drinking:

Edited by Miserablegit on Thursday 8th August 10:14

[Miserablegit]

[Miserablegit]

[Miserablegit]

last two poor photographs

[Miserablegit]

[rdjohn]

Pericoloso said:

Is that ^^^ one even an Art Car ?

Doesn't look very arty to me.

The display of Art Cars in the City of London during 2012 Olympics was awesome.

Did I mention that it was an Art Car?

Nope, I said that the Stella car never moves, so this one has been substituted.

[bolide]

I have a gallery of photos from the Whitechapel exhibition on my website

BMW Art Cars in Shoreditch



Nick Froome