Car Art - The Perfect Medium for the Carmakers

Take art, and put it on… a car – the perfect medium to express even the most unexpected insights.

Contemporary provocation, classic inspiration, pop mixes – the marriage between art and cars sometimes results in bizarre performances, overloaded with odd concepts – which, when they gain fame, fetch extraordinary amounts at international auctions. Other than epic paintings, like the ‘Speeding Automobile’ by the futurist Giacomo Balla, auctioned recently by Southeby’s for around 11.4 million dollars, even the most angular of forms is fair game for creating an ‘art attack’ by using a car body as the canvas. Look at the works by Ron Arad, for example, who will explore, through physical experiments and digital simulations, the way in which automobile bodies (especially that of the Fiat 500) behave under compression.

Sculptors, architects or designers are often hired directly by manufacturers, as art is (also) marketing. This much is certain, motor art is a formidable instrument for transporting a brand and its message across the globe. BMW knows this well, and maintains a blog on art. Then there’s Mercedes, which sponsors various exhibitions and collections, and Toyota, which has a program that engages children from all over the world. Here’s a small gallery to pique your interest
(in collaboration with Luca Pezzoni).

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