Prominent Contemporary African Artist, Julie Mehretu, recently unveiled the 20th BMW Art Car at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. This milestone art car, a BMW M Hybrid V8 race car, will participate in the prestigious 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans, marking a convergence of automotive design, speed, and artistic innovation.
Mehretu’s design for the BMW M Hybrid V8 is a groundbreaking interpretation of her characteristic abstract style. Drawing inspiration from her monumental painting “Everywhen,” created between 2021 and 2023, Mehretu digitally altered photographs and superimposed them onto multiple layers of dot grids. She also applied her abstract motifs to a three-dimensional surface for the first time in this design, departing from previous BMW Art Cars.
Reflecting on her creative process, Mehretu described the symbiotic relationship between her painting and the car’s design:
“In the studio, I had the model of the BMW M Hybrid V8, sitting in front of the painting, and I thought: What would happen if this car seemed to go through that painting and became affected by it?”
This innovative approach resulted in a design where even the car’s iconic kidney grilles appeared to inhale elements of her artwork.
In conjunction with the BMW Art Car launch, Mehretu and BMW also announced a joint commitment to host a series of Pan-African Translocal Media Workshops for filmmakers in 2025 and 2026.
These workshops will take place in African cities including Dakar, Marrakesh, and Addis Ababa, culminating in a major exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. This initiative further underscores Mehretu’s engagement with her African heritage and her dedication to fostering artistic collaboration across the continent.
The BMW Art Car project, initiated in 1975 by American sculptor Alexander Calder, has since featured contributions from renowned artists such as Frank Stella, Esther Mahlangu, and David Hockney. Mehretu’s involvement marks a significant milestone as the first woman to design a BMW Art Car since South African artist Esther Mahlangu in 1991. Moreover, her participation underscores the project’s ongoing evolution and its commitment to diversity in artistic representation.
Mehretu’s artistic practice deeply roots itself in architecture and urban settings, exploring themes of migration, colonization, and globalization. Her large-scale works, like the mural at the Goldman Sachs building in Manhattan, evoke a sense of movement and also complexity with their intricate lines and vibrant colors. Her ability to blend technical precision with emotional depth has further garnered critical acclaim, as evidenced by the record-breaking auction of her 2001 work “Untitled” at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
The BMW M Hybrid V8’s design process involved collaboration with the German team Race Spirit to translate Mehretu’s painting into a dynamic car wrapping that adheres to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) regulations. This collaboration resulted in a high-resolution image applied to the vehicle’s contours, capturing the essence of Mehretu’s artistic vision.
Julie Mehretu’s BMW Art Car is a testament to the intersection of art, technology, and automotive design. By bringing her abstract expressionism into the realm of racing, Mehretu has expanded the boundaries of what an art car can be, demonstrating the power of art to transform everyday objects into symbols of creative innovation and cultural exchange. Her contribution to the BMW Art Car legacy will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on both the art and automotive worlds for years to come.
