BMW art cars by andy warhol, julie mehretu debut at pebble beach

Warhol and Mehretu land on Pebble Beach

Celebrating fifty years of the Art Car, two of BMW‘s ‘rolling sculptures’ arrive to the coastal links of the famed Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The annual event, a beauty pageant for cars, marks the finale of Monterey Car Week and draws the most extravagant vehicles from across the world. This year’s concours was held on August 17th, and over two hundred cars were shown.

Backdropped by the rocky coastline and fronted by enthusiastic spectators were two of BMW’s most landmark Art Cars: Andy Warhol’s 1979 BMW M1 Group 4 (see here) and the most recent work, Julie Mehretu’s 2024 BMW M Hybrid V8 (see here).

designboom was in attendance this year, and throughout the crowded, stretching show field we overheard mentions of the BMW Art Cars as a overwhelming highlight — especially with its reputation as perhaps the most valuable car in the world, with some guesses ranging from $60-$200 million.

images courtesy BMW Group

a legendary bmw art car’s global journey

BMW’s display at Pebble Beach marks the start of the North American leg of the Art Car World Tour, which has seen Andy Warhol’s Art Car travel across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia throughout this 50th anniversary year. The iconic edition, with its gestural brushstrokes, arrives at California’s Pebble Beach after recent showings in Dubai and Sweden. In April 2025, designboom visited Andy Warhol’s Art Car when it appeared at Art Dubai, a stop along the World Tour which marked its debut in the Middle East.

Two months later, we again encountered the Warhol car arrived to southern Sweden for the Aurora Scandinavian Concours in late June, where it was joined by three other historic BMW Art Cars: Alexander Calder’s 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL, the first in the series; Roy Lichtenstein’s 1977 BMW 320i, which renders an abstraction of passing scenery; and Jeff Koons’ 2010 BMW M3 GT2, spotted with the artist’s graphic Pop Art motifs.

Julie Mehretu’s Art Car has also has an international presence, debuting at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2024 and appearing at the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este in Lake Como before its racing deployment at Le Mans.

BMW celebrates 50 years of its Art Car program at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

Andy Warhol’s Radical Intervention

Andy Warhol’s BMW M1, which displayed at Pebble Beach, was the fourth commission in the series, following Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, and Roy Lichtenstein. Painted in just twenty-eight minutes, the work stands apart for its visible texture. Warhol applied roughly thirteen pounds of paint directly to the car’s surface with visible brushstrokes, foregoing preparatory sketches or scale models.

French racing driver and Art Car initiator Hervé Poulain compared the live act of painting to a performance. Beyond its presence in museums and exhibitions, the car competed once at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979, underscoring the dual identity of the Art Cars as both artworks and machines.

Julie Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8 makes its North American debut at Pebble Beach

julie mehretu continues the legacy

Julie Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8 race car — the 20th Art Car — is a continuation of BMW’s legendary series into the present. Using digitally altered photographs, abstract markings, and layered veils of color, her work reimagines the vehicle as a moving painting. The creation builds upon her monumental canvas Everywhen (2021–2023) which measures 10’x10′, and is currently entering MoMA’s permanent collection. The dense, gestural abstraction in ink and acrylic is thus translated onto the racing prototype with BMW.

The Art Car competed at Le Mans in 2024 and continues to link artistic practice with motorsport. Mehretu has described the project as a ‘performative painting,’ one completed through the act of racing itself.

Mehretu translates her monumental painting Everywhen onto a racing prototype

the art car world tour

The pairing of Warhol’s late-1970s experiment with Mehretu’s digital-age intervention at Pebble Beach emphasizes the breadth of the BMW Art Car program across five decades. Their presentation at Pebble Beach, the centerpiece of Monterey Car Week, coincides with another milestone: fifty years of BMW operating in the United States.

After the concours, the two Art Cars will travel to the East Coast, with appearances planned at The Bridge in New York and the Hagerty Drivers Foundation’s Cars at the Capital exhibition in Washington, D.C. The ongoing Art Car World Tour reminds us how these works of art have shifted between racetracks, museums, and public settings like Pebble Beach.

Andy Warhol’s BMW M1 Art Car was painted in just 28 minutes