The Calder Foundation and BMW have unveiled the Calder BMW Art Car (Artist’s Proof), which is set to be displayed at the ‘Alexander Calder: Minimal / Maximal’ exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin from 22nd August, 2021. The Artist’s Proof realises Calder’s dream of creating his own example of the first BMW Art Car, operating as the kinetic work of art that the artist intended.

Alexander S. C. Rower, grandson of the artist and president of the Calder Foundation, recalls, “I first encountered the BMW Art Car as a kid at the opening of my grandfather’s far-ranging retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 1976. I asked him about the roar of its M49 engine, and he smiled and told me he wanted to make one for himself. He died just a few weeks later. Ever since, I have dreamed of realising his wish to bring the car to life to experience its full glory in motion. I am thrilled that that day has finally come, and that the car will be activated for the opening of the Neue Nationalgalerie’s ‘Minimal / Maximal’ exhibition, which highlights the key element of social activation so fundamental to Calder’s work.”

The Artist’s Proof is not a replica, clone, copy, reproduction, facsimile, or 1:1 of the 1975 Calder BMW Art Car. Rather, it is the identical Artist’s Proof that Calder was entitled to but was never realised until now. Meticulously built from an original BMW 3.0 CSL, the Artist’s Proof will carry the same Vehicle Identification Number, with the suffix ‘AP’ (227592/AP).

The story behind Calder’s legendary BMW Art Car originated not in the automotive but rather the aeronautical sphere. In 1974, French auctioneer and racecar driver Hervé Poulain visited Calder at his studio in Saché, France, to propose translating the artist’s recent collaboration with Braniff International Airways into the world of cars; Calder’s painted DC-8-62 airplane, inaugurated in 1973, had been wildly successful. BMW and Poulain commissioned Calder to paint a design on a BMW to be raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1975. The result was a momentous collaboration that spurred an entire Art Car program at BMW. After Calder’s Art Car was raced at Le Mans, it was subsequently exhibited at the artist’s sprawling retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in 1976, where it occupied a prominent place in the museum for the run of the exceptionally popular exhibition.

The Calder Foundation and BMW Group Classic consulted with key members of the original team to realise this project, including not only Poulain but also Jochen Neerpasch, who was a key supporter of the BMW Art Car series from the beginning, and Walter Maurer, who did the technical painting of the Calder BMW Art Car in 1975 as well as of the Artist’s Proof in 2021.

Following its debut in Berlin, the Calder BMW Art Car (Artist’s Proof) will be shown at The Bridge in Bridgehampton, New York, on September 18, 2021.

Twice as nice