Some people go to museums to experience paintings.
Some people go to car shows or automotive museums to experience cars.
What is not usual, is to go to a single museum and experience both at the same time, which is exactly what happened last year at the Louwman Museum in The Hague.
Welcome to Fine Art On Wheels, a BMW Art Car exhibition.
Thanks to Louwman Museum for allowing me to enter the premises a bit before opening time, so I could get some photos of the exhibition without people around.
BMW Art Cars?
In an interview in 2009, Thomas Girst, the person in charge of the BMW Art Cars project for over 20 years now (since 2004) shared that the purpose of the project itself changed over time.
"In the beginning, the cars were raced. There wasn’t much of a public relations effort around them, nor were communications opportunities sought. Since then, some of the Art Cars have been used in advertisements to show that BMW is a player in the arts.”
Exactly 50 years before this exhibition, in 1975, French race car driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain commissioned his friend and artist Alexander Calder to paint the first “BMW Art Car”.
The best thing about it is that this was not meant to be “just” an art piece, but so much more.
The BMW 3.0 CSL he provided Calder as a canvas was entered and raced by Poulain himself in the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race.
The official number of BMW Art Cars is 20 as of July 2026.
Frank Stella, we meet again
But the Louwman Museum Fine Art on Wheels exhibition was not my first exposure to the BMW Art Cars in the metal.
As you might know, I was lucky enough to visit the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2025, and while strolling around the village, one particularly looking and not very modern BMW caught my eye, so I had to get closer.
It was Frank Stella’s work of art on top of also a BMW 3.0 CSL. More on it later.
Raced and Static Art Cars
There are two groups of cars within the BMW Art Cars collection: raced and static art cars.
There are some of them that were actually raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, no less, and others that are just show pieces.
If you want to read more about them and see a lot of beautiful pictures and interpretations through the eyes of an artist (that would be me!), then please log in to Living Cars with the button on the top right (or subscribe for free here if you are yet not part of the community. We would love to have you!)
Some of the pictures you can see in full in the article:
Closing words
As a car enthusiast, this exhibition included some of the coolest cars one can see in the metal.
Where else will you see so many Le Mans cars together outside a Le Mans specific event, or the Le Mans museum itself?
But as an artist, this was so much more.
It was the proof that art doesn’t have to be on paper, a canvas or a screen. Art can be anywhere, take any shape and any form.
Because art is human expression. It is a language that does not need words. It’s something that you can see and it can mean something very specific and unique to you.
It’s the combination of what the artist wanted to express, with what you as the viewer are able to interpret and absorb.
And my only wish is that there were so many more art cars, and not from a single brand alone.
Art itself moves people, and these being a group of “canvas on wheels” is definitely art that moves.
I hope you enjoyed them all and let me know which is your favourite!
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[Work in progress] Screenshots from the upcoming “Homologation Specials” book I’m illustrating and writing.
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I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Juanma