The BMW Art Car Still Sets the Pace
As BMW brings Robert Rauschenberg’s iconic 635CSi to Art Basel Hong Kong 2026, we sit down with Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst to discuss 51 years of cultural disruption, the shift from race tracks to city streets, and why the Art Car remains the ultimate symbol of the “mobile museum.”
Robert Rauschenberg famously dreamed of a world filled with “mobile museums” — a vision he realized when he transformed the BMW 635CSi into a rolling masterpiece for the BMW Art Car program. Decades later, his innovative blueprint remains as relevant as it was 40 years ago. In a fitting centennial tribute, BMW is presenting his Art Car at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026, marking the masterpiece’s first-ever appearance in Asia.
The BMW Art Car program we know now has undergone a few changes in the last four decades. Today, the process is governed by an international jury of esteemed museum directors; while BMW throws a vehicle model in the ring, the choice of the artist remains entirely in the hands of the experts, bringing a different energy than the ‘80s. “There was a time in the ‘80s when we employed regular series cars, I think because BMW was becoming more of a global brand and we wanted to showcase that our cars that are available to everybody on the street,” Prof. Dr. Thomas Girst, BMW’s Global Head of Cultural Engagement tells Hypebeast. Although the likes of Julie Mehretu and Jeff Koons have returned the series to the grueling tracks of Le Mans and Daytona, the decade of decadence sought to celebrate the cars people actually drove — perfectly translating Rauschenberg’s mission and embodied by his BMW 635CSi. Unlike the track-only machines of his 1970s predecessors like Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol, Rauschenberg’s contribution translated his pursuit of “availability” onto a street-legal canvas, bridging the gap between elite engineering and the public experience.
In an era where digital immersion is the new frontier, BMW remains dedicated to moving art out of the hushed corridors of the gallery and directly onto the asphalt. Since the program’s inception in 1975, BMW has been eager to utilize the latest tech available to artists into its Art Car series, ranging from brush and color into foiling, augmented reality, and even apps in the same manner as Cao Fei’s work for her BMW Art Car #18. However, when given the opportunity to showcase art outside of the museum walls, Prof. Dr. Girst shares that many artists jumped on the chance, adding, “Like John Baldassare did, who was eager to not have visitors see his work only in museums, but on the street.”
“That is where the BMW Art Cars come in,” he says, “bringing art to where people are, instead of people going to where the art is.”
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Hypebeast: The 1986 Art Car featured imagery from Renaissance and Neoclassical masters like Bronzino and Ingres. Is it important for the Art Car program to maintain a dialogue with art history while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of automotive technology?
The BMW Art Cars are as interesting to those that are into the arts and design as it is to those that are into engineering, technology, motor sports, and racing. So while we pay tribute to the artists, and those artists pay tribute to art history, it is not necessary that artists delve into hundreds of years of what came before them the way that Rauschenberg did when he employed Une Odalisque by [Jean-Auguste-Dominique] Ingres from the 19th century, basically as the co-driver, and Portrait of a Young Man by Bronzino as the driver of his car.
He also employed, of course, plants and flora and fauna from Captiva, the island off the coast of Florida where he had a studio, and where he actually worked on the BMW Art Car. He created the foils for it, coming up with the overall reduced black-and-white approach of the car the way that Frank Stella had done his car in 1976 with a black-and-white grid, paying homage to the engineers of the car.
When, famously, the Rauschenberg car entered his studio, he said it stood there all white like a pride. He said after that he wanted to do 10 more, laughing his laugh. I think that Robert Rauschenberg in 1985 was very postmodern, and postmodernism is all about employing and toying with images of the past. I think this car stands as an example for the postmodern phase of Robert Rauschenberg. Obviously he had been interested in mobility before, in having driveable museums, and this is why he said that the car is a dream come true for him. When it also comes to his whole idea and notion of collaboration, and of intercultural dialogue spanning centuries, all of this comes together in this car.
Rauschenberg used the car to explore Walter Benjamin’s concepts regarding “The Work of Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproduction.” As we move into the age of AI and generative art, how is the program evolving to address new methods of “mechanical” or digital reproduction?
What is important in Walter Benjamin’s essay is, of course, the idea of the aura. No matter how often an artwork is reproduced, no matter how many times we see it, even online today, there is still an aura that is with the original and the original alone. I would argue that Robert Rauschenberg, with his car, was pushing the envelope in regard to what is real? What is original? How do we toy with ideas of the past? How do we employ them in a playful sort of manner? How do we make our art approachable? How do we make art matter to as many people as possible? Which is why he loved to work on a car, making it accessible by definition, with a car driving around on the outside, and also employing, as I said, not only art history, art historical references, but also, you know, the great plans of Captiva Island and Florida where this car was created.
Now, when it comes to AI, I think BMW is very interested in artists working with the latest technologies. As you know, artists, as curious as they are, have always employed the latest technologies, from the Renaissance times onward when the telescope or the microscope opened entire doors and universes for artists that were painting. Nowadays it’s the same with employing AI with making use of the digital sphere — something that BMW is very interested in when it comes to its core business. We consider ourselves at the forefront of technological innovation, and we love to see and love to collaborate with artists that do the same. Of course, every time we work with artists, they have complete freedom to do what it is that they want to do. There’s no interference on our side, because that complete freedom is as important for artists to create groundbreaking works of art as it is for our engineers and designers to come up with the best answers for questions of mobility of today and tomorrow.
“That is where the BMW Art Cars come in, bringing art to where people are, instead of people going to where the art is.”
But that said, one thing, we should be clear, it was Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s who said that if we look at Earth as a spaceship, we are already in outer space. If we consider our planet a spaceship, he said, on spaceship Earth, there’s no passengers, there’s only crew. So if there’s no passengers and there’s only crew, that is a great mindset in terms of being a crew member and not a passenger on spaceship Earth. And AI is certainly not a crew member. AI is a tool. AI is material at best. When it comes to employing it within the arts, it doesn’t take away from an artist or his or her creativity, but it can be used as a tool. And this is where we love to see engagement happen. This is where we, with what it is that we do — providing platforms for emerging and international artists around the globe — it’s very dear that we look into how they deal with the latest technologies. Many, many years ago, we worked with ArtDrunk on the concept of the ultimate AI masterpiece where artists that we worked with were giving their artworks into an algorithm, who would then project potential works of theirs onto a car. So the car as a canvas showing what is possible with AI is something that we’ve done in the past, and we’re interested in doing in the future.
Rauschenberg had a long history of collaborating with scientists and engineers, such as his E.A.T. project. How does BMW facilitate this specific “technical innovator” spirit when a contemporary artist steps into the studio to design a new Art Car?
We made the experience that artists that work with us love to dive into what it is that we have to offer. They love to work with our engineers. They love to work with our designers, our sound engineers, our mechanical crew that is in the pit stop working on a car, seeing themselves as part of the team when it comes to creating a BMW Art Car. I mean, this is, again, one of many initiatives worldwide. We are partnering with cultural institutions, with orchestras, with opera houses, with art fairs, and we always have a different approach. But you know what? What combines them all is our quest for making visions come true, [visions] that artists would love to realize, providing platforms for their visibility, and also positioning BMW as a leader in the field who, again, never intervenes when it comes to content, but adds not to the bling bling of the art world, but to a meaningful dialogue between spectator and onlooker, between listener and and a composition, a piece of music, for example.
Taking the first step on the 635CSi was described by the artist as “extremely difficult.” How does your team help artists overcome the intimidation of working with such a beautiful, high-performance “canvas?”
What we do is we have a system in place in regard to BMW Art Car artists that are chosen by an international, independent jury of renowned global museum directors. They are invited to a race, so they see what happens when a car is in the pit stop. They see what happens when drivers are working together with mechanical engineers, engineers, and designers. You know, to have a car that actually wins a race, or is at least competing for first prize. This is what artists are interested in exploring further, and our role is very clear — it is making the vision of artists come true. We did the same with Julie Mehretu, who did not want her Art Car No. 20 to be called a “rolling sculpture,” as many of these BMW Art Cars are, but rather a performative painting. She thought of the big nose of the car, basically inhaling one of her paintings that were on the wall in her studio while she was working on the car. That is another element of getting artists interested in what it is that we have to offer, by providing them with a miniature version of the car that they turn into an Art Car, so that they have it in their studio and they can think about what it is that they want to do with it.
“AI is certainly not a crew member. AI is a tool. AI is material at best.”
Rauschenberg founded the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange (ROCI) to transcend geographical limits. In what ways does the Art Car program act as a modern “cultural interchange” for BMW on a global scale?
I believe that ROCI was, you know, ahead of the curve when it comes to when it comes to ideas of collaboration, when it comes to working on a global scale, when it comes to delving into the creativity of so many different cultures and facets of what it is that we are capable of as human beings. And I believe that cultural interchange or cultural dialogue is not something to strive for, is not something to try and achieve, but is the basis of the success of an international company as well when it comes to our core business. This intercultural dialogue is essential, and it is what we showcase. It is what we hail. It is what we throw all of our weight behind when it comes to our cultural engagement, but also when it comes to thinking of our core business as a company doing business in over a hundred countries. It is essential to understand each other, to respect each other, to value each other, and to encounter each other with a great portion of curiosity. Art can do that. Art can jump across any threshold and make it very clear that we are all humans on this planet together, trying to achieve something wonderful.
From a stuffed goat with a tire in Monogram to a BMW hood signed in 1986, Rauschenberg sought to merge art with the “larger world.” Looking toward the future, how does the Art Car program remain a prime symbol of BMW’s commitment to global cultural engagement?
I think this very year, we see AFMAC play out. AFMAC is the African Film and Media Arts Collective that was invented by Julie Mehretu, the BMW Art Car artist for Art Car No. 20. Her BMW M v8 hybrid car raced at the 24-hour race in Le Mans in 2024, but that was not the end of the project. For Julie Mehretu, an Ethiopian artist who went to the United States very early in her life, it was essential for her to also give something back to the continent, in this case, the African continent. And this is why the African Film and Media Arts Collective was born out of the Art Car project. We are moving forward from the invention of the BMW Art Car in 1975 where it was about wielding brushes and painting a car to involving and incorporating the digital, to turning this into something that has more to do also with corporate citizenship, giving something back to the society that we do successful business in. Now, AFMAC is a platform for dialogue, implementing many workshops across Africa, where young filmmakers talk about their practice with elite artists that have been chosen by AFMAC. All of this is coming together at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), a long term partner of BMW, and the greatest museum for contemporary art in all of Africa, which happens to be in Cape Town.
We’ve been partnering with them from the get-go when it comes to the BMW Education Center, bringing arts and culture education to young students. It will culminate the AFMAC platforms for filmmaking that have been taking place in at least six different cities across Africa in the past two years. They will all culminate presenting their results together with the BMW Art Car in early December at Zeitz MOCAA in 2026.
“No matter how often an artwork is reproduced, no matter how many times we see it, even online today, there is still an aura that is with the original and the original alone.”
When it comes to how we look into the future of the BMW Art Cars, the series will obviously continue. I think we made it very clear that it is certainly about the car, but not only about the car. Robert Rauschenberg has made clear with his amazing car himself, having been interested in questions of mobility since the 1950s when he created this automotive tire track. It’s almost, I think, 30 or over 20 feet long. The tire track was from the car of musician John Cage, who used to be his friend and was the only person that he knew had a car in New York City. He borrowed his car to basically create this tire track, which is almost like Chinese calligraphy.
I think that part of this whole idea of what Rauschenberg was about is being paid tribute to, and is being played out at this amazing exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg that is currently showing at M+, while we bring his BMW Art Car to Art Basel Hong Kong. With Art Basel being our partner for more than two decades now, this is all coming together very well and lovely, because this exhibit, aside from his tire track, shows not only his influence in Asia, but also Asian influence on his work. That, I think, is something that he would love to have seen come into being. He was so much into making his art matter internationally, or making what his art stands for matter, and that is collaboration across nation states and across disciplines. All of that comes together and culminates in his great work for us: the BMW Art Car.
