• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Two-Week Public Art Installation Featuring BMW Art Cars by Stella, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rauschenberg and a Project by Artist Robin Rhode Commissioned by BMW to Open at Grand Central Terminal on March 25, 2009

Posted on: Monday, 23 March 2009, 14:30 CDT

Rhode, Stella and filmmaker Jake Scott will attend March 24 preview of installation

WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J., March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- A public art installation will open at New York's Grand Central Terminal on March 25, 2009, featuring two distinct sections and made possible by BMW. One is a collection of four iconic BMW Art Cars designed by Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. The second is a project by contemporary artist Robin Rhode, who used the all-new 2009 BMW Z4 Roadster mounted with special paint dispensers behind its wheels to create a football-field size painting, a 30' x 40' section of which will be shown.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090323/NY87392 )

Rhode, Stella and Jake Scott of RSA films, who collaborated with Rhode on the project, will attend a preview of the installation on March 24, 2009. The installation will be free and open to the public from March 25 through April 6, 2009 from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. in Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall(R).

"Arts and culture is our City's signature industry, and it also nourishes many others," said New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "New York City's vibrant cultural life is a big reason why so many people want to live here, and it draws visitors here from around the world."

"BMW is proud to bring the works of some of the world's most respected artists to New York City as part of a free public art installation," said Jack Pitney, Vice President of Marketing for BMW of North America. "It is an honor to know that these artists, and so many others, have garnered inspiration from, or expressed their thoughts and points of view through, our cars. Furthermore, to have Robin, Frank and Jake with us at the installation's preview makes this moment all the more special."

The BMW Art Car project has a storied history of more than 30 years. Since its founding in 1975, sixteen of the world's most respected artists, including the four whose works will be displayed in the installation in Vanderbilt Hall(R), have designed BMW Art Cars. The cars have been exhibited by museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Louvre in Paris and the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.

The BMW Art Cars will be accompanied by rare, behind-the-scenes footage of the four cars that will be played in the Grand Central Terminal installation. The videos reveal Warhol painting his car, Stella and Rauschenberg discussing their inspirations and influences in creating their respective pieces and various experts discussing the resulting impact of these works.

Occupying the other half of Vanderbilt Hall will be the most recent example of BMW's long-standing commitment to the arts -- Rhode's project. In contrast to the renowned BMW Art Car Program, where artists are commissioned to apply artwork to the car's existing structure, Rhode was given a car to create an interaction that was documented by Scott. Like in the BMW Art Car Program, the car acts as a catalyst for creativity but in an entirely different, transient way.

From a tower 30 feet above his canvas laid out on the floor, Rhode choreographed the movements of an all-new 2009 BMW Z4 Roadster and used a remote control device to direct when and where colored paint was sprayed onto the tires which marked the canvas. Scott, from 40 simultaneous camera angles, captured the interaction between the artist, the BMW Z4 Roadster and its driver, at Los Angeles' Downey Studios. Rhode's paintbrush (the BMW Z4 Roadster) and Scott's video footage of the action will also be part of the installation at Grand Central Terminal. Scott's footage will be shown in high-definition on a 16' x 9' screen.

Rhode has characterized his role in the project as a "creative navigator," expressing the fun relationship between the artist, design and technological advancements.

"As an artist I am always keen to collaborate with other disciplines like dance, music and now film," said Rhode. "I'm a pure car enthusiast. But I also liked the idea of going through childlike actions to create a painting that is a way to engage with technology and design."

Beginning March 24, visitors to www.bmwusa.com will be able to view a special "making of" film clip, which shows the entire creative process behind Rhode and Scott's collaboration, as well as detailed information about the BMW Art Car program.

About the BMW Art Car Program

The BMW Art Car Project was originally conceived by the French racecar driver Herve Poulain in 1975. Since then, prominent artists throughout the world have joined the elite cast of Calder, Stella, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rauschenberg, and have designed sixteen BMW Art Cars, based on both racing and regular production vehicles. The most recent contributors to the BMW Art Car program are David Hockney (1995), Jenny Holzer (1999), and Olafur Eliasson (2007). New artists are chosen by a prestigious panel of international judges, and BMW is currently in discussions for the development of the seventeenth art car.

BMW Art Cars have been exhibited by numerous museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Louvre in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao. Aside from being displayed at their home base at the BMW Museum in Munich, BMW Art Cars will continue to be shown at future international exhibitions. In 2006, they were sent on an extensive tour of Asia, which took them to Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Korea, Australia, India, Taiwan, China, Russia and Africa. The Art Cars will continue to be exhibited worldwide through 2010.

About Robin Rhode

Rhode was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1976 and is currently based in Berlin, Germany. Rhode incorporates elements of performance, photography, video, drawing, and sculpture all converges and meld to augment his inimitable artistic vocabulary and candid portrayal of Rhode's imagination. Through historical reference, Rhode's intellectual constructions continue to reference his South African heritage, yet aim to extend and transgress the physical boundaries of space, time and location, while challenging the conventional definitions of art and expectation.

For more information about Robin Rhode and his upcoming projects, please visit http://www.perryrubenstein.com/artists/robin-rhode/.

About BMW and Contemporary Art

BMW has a long-standing commitment to contemporary art starting with Gerhard Richter's 1972 commission of three large-scale paintings for the foyer of the company headquarters in Munich. Karl Schwanzer's architectural post-war icon, the "four cylinder" building, marked the beginning of the company's emphasis on an innovative, dynamic style of construction which was extended in 2005 with the central building of the new BMW Leipzig Plant, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. BMW has been engaged in the sponsorship of cultural formats for more than thirty years with hundreds of international commitments. In each endeavor, the utmost importance is attached to total freedom of creative potential -- recognizing that this is just as much a guarantee for groundbreaking achievements in art as it is for the most crucial innovations within a successful business enterprise.

For more information, please visit www.bmwgroup.com/culture.

About Grand Central Terminal

Completely restored back to its 1913 splendor, Grand Central has become a midtown destination for five restaurants and cocktail lounges, 20 casual international eateries in the lower level Dining Concourse, gourmet foods from the Grand Central Market, and 50 specialty shops throughout the concourses, all in addition to transportation and a venue for ongoing free public events. Grand Central Terminal, which is owned and operated by MTA Metro North, is located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue and is open seven days a week. For a complete listing of all stores, restaurants, merchants, events and more, go to www.GrandCentralTerminal.com.

BMW Group In America

BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group's global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car centers, 335 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 142 BMW motorcycle retailers, 83 MINI passenger car dealers, and 30 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group's sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:

www.bmwgroupna.com

www.bmwusa.com

www.bmwmotorcycles.com

www.miniusa.com

www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com

Journalist note: Information about the BMW Group and its products is available to journalists on-line at the BMW Group PressClub at the following address: www.press.bmwgroup.com. Broadcast quality video footage is available via The NewsMarket at www.thenewsmarket.com.

SOURCE BMW of North America, LLC

Source: PR Newswire

More News in this Category