The 2012 London Olympics start on July 27, 2012. To celebrate the event, ICA and BMW have teamed up with London Festival and Mayor of London to form a special display of sixteen art cars all painted on their exterior by artists like Andy Warhol and David Hockney.
The BMW Art Car project began in 1975 when French racer Hervé Poulain commissioned a BMW 3.0 CSL with art work by Alexander Calder. The car later ran in the 1975 Le Mans endurance race. Since then painters such as David Hockney, Jenny Holzer and Roy Lichtenstein have painted cars such as the 730i and Z1.
The collection features BMW cars transformed by artists like Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Ernst Fuchs, Robert Rauschenberg, M.J Nelson, Ken Done, Matazo Kayama, Cesar Manrique, Jeff Koons, A.R Penck, Esher Mahlangu, Sandro Chia, Jenny Holzer and David Hockney.
The group of cars will be displayed two weeks only from 21 July to 4 August on six floors in the NCP Car Park on Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. The display will be part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
For those not heading to the Olympics, you can check out the art exhibition online.
