The BMW 8 X Jeff Koons Merges Graphic Iconography With Bespoke Customizations
The contemporary artist finds an ideal canvas with the M850i xDrive Gran Coupe model.
The 8 X Jeff Koons marks a formative moment in BMW’s innovative M division, presenting a fully custom 8 Series Gran Coupe envisioned in Koon’s iconoclastic eye.
Jeff Koons and the German manufacturer join under a unified vision, one emblematic of Koons’ idiosyncratic presence and output in the artworld. Koons has deconstructed America’s relationship with consumerism and materialism throughout his career, often using eerily disembodied objects to communicate the visual excess of modern culture. Following in theme with his work’s discipline, Koons finds a mobile canvas for his next display of Americana-style iconography.
The special edition model requires 11 exterior colors in total and is estimated to take several hundred hours of professional paintwork per vehicle; the finished artwork appears like a comic book panel tattooed meticulously on the exterior. 8 X Jeff Koons visually pays homage to the artist’s 2010 BMW Art Car, which featured multicolored graphic stripes throughout the vehicle’s exterior. The “pop” and “vapor icons” spell out the vehicle’s brash speed courtesy of the 4.4L M TwinPower Turbo V8 with 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. The model’s muscular chassis hits a sweet spot with the Adaptive M Suspension, creating a stabilized, smooth cabin experience.
The revamped 8 Series Gran Coupe is BMW’s grandest display of custom tailoring, hence the model’s commercial global availability and tour throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including notable showings at Paris Photo, Art Dubai, West Bund Art & Design Fair Shanghai and Art Basel Hong Kong.
BMW’s engineering teams, based in Bavaria, Germany, will produce two vehicles a week, limiting production to 99 units, one of which will auction at Christie‘s on April 4. The model is available globally as an M850i xDrive Gran Coupe and will retail with a market price of $350,000 USD.
Read more about the BMW 8 X Jeff Koons model by visiting BMW’s official home website.
In other automotive news, Lexus unveils its concept electrified supercar slated to replace the LFA.
