April 19: Art cars again

Art cars? Yeah, you know, those strange looking apparitions, which appear from time to time covered with their owners unusual assortments of various types of collectibles or garbage. I wrote something like that a couple of years back, when doing an art car blog and got a very offended response from someone, who happened to stumble across my  post. Lighten up, folks, this is all done in jest (unless, of course, it isn't). But this blog on art cars, is about "real" art cars. Those cars that, the manufacturer has had legitimate artists paint for the betterment of all mankind. Kind of like this dud(e) is doing to his (or hopefully his) Mercedes......

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but Bentley's eyes thought that this would be a good way to decorate a new cabrio.......

......and to do so, they invited famous British artist, Sir Peter Blake (seen above) to make this car stand out more than it normally does. Like pop art or not, this Bentley is gorgeous. The hood? Well, shall we just say everyone will have an opinion. But Sir Peter's work is subtler than most of the art cars we've seen done over the years. Just a quick hood and grille surround redo and once again this prestigious Bentley looks prestigious.

Want something with a little more complete coverage? Something outrageous like a new Vette?

Something like this one, which was done by art students for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit. It probably broke their hearts to mess up this great looking car, but maybe not, since this is a dynamic looking paint job on a dynamic looking car.

Not sure if BMW was the originator of the art car concept, but I think they might have been with their famous artist cars of the 1970's. Cars like this M1 done by Andy Warhol........

.......or this 6 series coupe by Alexander Calder.........

Calder was famous for his unusual canvases, since he also did a number of planes for Braniff International Airlines around this same time. Did he actually wield the brush or just do the design? Ask a dumb question will you?

Everyone knows the name Roy Lichtenstein and his paintings of famous sporting events, so of course, BMW also had him work his magic on a 3 series........

Different? I'd say so.

Well, that was BMW back then. Over the years, they've kept their hand in, by keeping the tradition alive. Their latest effort is another 3 series, actually a 4 series, since their nomenclature changed a couple of years back. Compare this Jeff Koons original to the Bentley at the beginning of my blog.......

Sort of out does that tower in the background, doesn't it?

Art cars or artists' cars. Either way, it's probably an inexpensive way to get lots of free publicity, no matter what the artist was paid for this commission. Got my attention didn't it, so I'd do this blog. Point proven.

Until next time......