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Jeff Koons for BMW…

Though his design for his BMW art car emphasizes streaks of saturated hues, the artist Jeff Koons said his multicolored effort was in part inspired by a desire for a checkered flag. “I think that would be really fantastic to work on a car that could win,” Mr. Koons said Monday evening in a telephone interview. “I do hope that in the future, we can look back and this car wins.” 

There may or may not be a victory lap in the future for Mr. Koons’s car, whose design, above, will be officially unveiled on Tuesday morning and which will adorn a BMW M3 GT2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in Paris this June. But his automotive artwork continues a 35-year-old tradition at BMW, which has previously commissioned Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg to turn its cars into canvases, and, at the same time, offers a window into Mr. Koons’s past. (via)

The floor of the Thompson LES’s pool boasts a photographic mural of Andy Warhol…

Still-Life Polaroids by Andy Warhol…

What can we really say about one of the world’s greatest influences other than via the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, they are were displaying a selection of 70 Still-Life Polaroids by Andy Warhol. Depicting a set of assorted objects taken by Warhol between 1977 and 1983, the exhibition captures a mass variety of subjects such as ballet shoes, eggs, knives, guns, perfume bottles and other commercial products as his ironic soup can. (via)

Although the exhibit is no longer up, you can still view the set of photos here.

Public Art Installation featuring four BMW Art Cars to be unveiled in Manhattan…

A two-week free public art installation featuring two distinct sections: a collection of four iconic BMW Art Cars designed by Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg and a project by South-African born artist Robin Rhode who used a 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 –will be unveiled on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall.

The BMW Art Cars will be accompanied by rare video footage that reveals a young 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. The BMW Art Car project was originally conceived in 1975 by French racecar driver Hervé Poulain. He had the idea of inviting an artist, his friend American artist Alexander Calder, to use his automobile, a BMW racing car, as a canvas. Since then, sixteen of the world’s most respected artists have designed BMW Art Cars… (via)

Surprisingly, my favorite detail at the Gramercy Park Hotel has never been one of their pieces Damien Hirst or Andy Warhol, but rather the glowing ceiling that “evokes the notion of a chandelier in Blade Runner”. The installation was created by Design Element Studio and commissioned by Julian Schnabel. Unfortunately, the room that boasts the countless bulbs is currently closed for renovations.