John Baldessari Makes His Debute at Art Basel with BMW

BMW presented its 19th art car at Art Basel Miami. BMW has been the global partner of Art Basel and has presented its art cars in the show for many years. This year, the car was designed by American Conceptual artist John Baldessari. It is the first time John Baldessari collaborated with BMW. He is a well known figure in the LA art scene.

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As a minimalist, John Baldessari has stayed true to his zone. He mostly worked with yellow, green, blue and red color and his trademark graphics. The artist has said to have captured the multi dimensionally of the car by working on each and every side of the car.

This 19th BMW art car will be entered in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship(IWSC). The car will be put to test in a competition at the Legendary 24 hours to be held on Jan 28 to 29 2017.

According to the president and CEO of BMW North America, Ludwig Willisch, the brand feel honored to be associated with an artist like John Baldessari. He added that BMW has added another masterpiece in its art collection.

Talking particularly about John Baldessari, Willisch said, “As one of the most important contemporary artists working today, John joins an incredible group from calder and Hockney to Warhol and Koons that has contributed to this collection over the past forty years. He has used his signature aesthetic combining color, shapes and text to create a visually stunning work which will stand out at both the museum and on the racetrack in daytona early next year.’

Before collaborating with BMW, John Baldessari said that he has done only one work in his life that involved a car and that was an image of a car. For Baldessari, this project was like an uncharted territory, in terms of subject and also dimensions. He has to move from two dimensional art to three dimensional art. It was a challenging one but he did enjoy working on it. It is, in fact, the fastest art that he has ever created.

On asking about the conception and execution he said, “The ideas all came at once: for instance, the red dot on the roof, so you can see it from above, FAST on one side and a picture of the car on the other side. I like the ambiguity, having two-dimensional and three-dimensional at the same time. Considering the car as an icon of contemporary life, my concept turned out playfully satirical, but it also highlights some of the trademark ideas that I use. So you can say, the BMW art car is definitely a typical Baldessari and the fastest artwork I ever created!”