BMW brings burlesque, Warhol, M1 and 6 Series Grand Coupe to Paris Photo LA

Mon, 22 Apr 2013

BMW has worked with Paris Photo for ten years. This year, the photography exposition lands in Paramount Studios in Los Angeles for the first time, and BMW is not only coming with it, the Bavarians are bringing the Art Car that started it all: the 1979 M1 painted by Andy Warhol. For those attending the show, there will also be making-of video of Warhol working on the car – but if you remember the mini lecture that EVO magazine's Henry Catchpole gave on the Art Cars, you'll remember that Warhol finished the car so quickly that the cameraman barely had time to get the film rolling.

With that will also be a series of photos of the BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe dropped into noir scenes accompanied by burlesque models, all taken by photographer Uwe Düttmann. It's the first time they'll be exhibited at Paris Photo. You can check out a few of them in the high-res gallery above, and there's a press release below with more info.

BMW and Paris Photo celebrate the tenth anniversary of their partnership with Andy Warhol's 1979 BMW Art Car at the inaugural Los Angeles Fair
BMW Debuts Burlesque Style Photos at Paris Photo LA.

Woodcliff Lake, N.J. – April 22, 2013 . . . At the inaugural fair of Paris Photo at LA's Paramount Pictures Studios, BMW is proud to present the M1 BMW Art Car by Andy Warhol, created by the pop artist in 1979, as well as rare making of footage of this work. Originally raced in Le Mans, Warhol in his own words meant to "give a vivid depiction of speed. If a car is really fast, all contours and colors will become blurred."

Since 1975, prominent artists from throughout the world have designed BMW automobiles of their times, all making extremely different artistic statements. The seventeen exhibits created for the Art Car Collection until now include works by well-known artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Olafur Eliasson and Jeff Koons. The Art Cars reflect the cultural and historical development of art, design, and technology and have been presented by major museums around the world, including the Guggenheim and the Louvre.

BMW will also present a mini series of Burlesque Style Photos with the 6 Series Gran Coupe by internationally renowned German photographer Uwe Düttmann. Four photos showcasing the 650i Gran Coupe in a retro setting celebrate film noir as well as the extraordinary sensuality of the best of burlesque vis-à-vis the high-tech design of one of the most advanced automobiles of our time.

Two years ago at a Hollywood studio and a private movie set outside of Los Angeles, BMW realized its idea of showcasing the 650i Gran Coupé in this unique manner. As befits the character of the shoot, 15 different photographs inside and outside the Gran Coupé present the two models acting out signature burlesque poses. The pictures will be presented within an environment paying tribute to their origins. Returning back home to LA, they are exhibited at the fair for the very first time.

"BMW is pleased to be involved in the inaugural Paris Photo LA," said Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW of North America. "We are particularly looking forward to bringing out Andy Warhol art car and debuting our new photos."

BMW and Paris Photo celebrate the tenth anniversary of their partnership. As it has in Paris, BMW will provide VIP shuttle service during Paris Photo Los Angeles. For many years, the BMW Group has worked together with great photographers from Bettina Rheims and Bryan Adams to Karl Lagerfeld. The company has been involved in the arts for over four decades with hundreds of initiatives worldwide. In 2005, at the opening of Zaha Hadid's BMW Leipzig plant, BMW donated its unique collection of commissioned photographs by Thomas Demand, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rineke Dijkstra, Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth, among others, to the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts. When it comes to promoting young outstanding photographers, among many other international cooperations, BMW has been active in providing scholarships for international artists in Germany as well as France, where residences have been set up at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce. In addition, BMW for many years has been engaged with Les Recontres Arles, the acclaimed summer photography festival. As a long-term partner of Art Basel, Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Basel Miami Beach, Frieze London and New York as well as Tefaf Maastricht an many other fairs worldwide, BMW has taken in active part of furthering the visibility and innovative spirit of photography as an established form of artistic expression. Whenever possible, the company has complied with artist's request to allow for photo shootings at our plants around the world. In 2014, the overall yearly theme of the BMW Museum will be "Photography."

For more information on BMW and Culture, please visit www.bmw-artcartour.com, http://www.bmwgroup.com/culture and http://www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview.

Paris Photo LA
Paris Photo, the world's most celebrated art fair for works created in the photographic medium, will take place at Paramount Pictures Studios offering Paris Photo Los Angeles the ideal setting to explore how artists have been and are using photography and moving images in their work in the 20th and 21st centuries.

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 and X3 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 and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 139 BMW motorcycle retailers, 116 MINI passenger car dealers, and 34 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

By Jonathon Ramsey