BMW Chooses Schlock for Its Next Art Car

[Blue_Tires]

It’s a sin to encourage the mediocre. And yet, BMW has seen fit to appoint Jeff Koons as the next “artist” who gets to make a BMW Art Car. Apparently, the company didn’t see the error of its ways in employing Chris Bangle, a designer with all the aesthetic sense of Arno Breker.

For those of you who have no idea what we’re talking about, BMW has since 1975 occasionally invited artists to use its cars as canvases. The result has been some striking vehicles, like the M1 Group 4 racer (shown above) that Andy Warhol painted in 1979. All told there have been 17 BMW Art Cars painted by some immensely talented artists.

But Koons? The talent-bereft hack who makes huge balloon sculptures? The guy Mark Stevens of The New Republic called “another of those who serve the tacky rich”?

Oh, brilliant choice, BMW.


What makes this so appalling is the company Koons joins. The list includes Alexander Calder (who did the first Art Car), Ernst Fuchs, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. Sure, you could say Calder ran out of ideas but kept at it and Warhol only really had one good idea to begin with, but Fuchs and Lichtenstein and Stella? They’re masters, no two ways about it. And let’s not forget Robert Rauschenberg did an Art Car. Jenny Holzer, too.

And what has Jeff Koons done? This:



Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/02/jeff_koons_bmw_art_car/#ixzz0fASKh52E