A true aesthete, auctioneer Hervé Poulain is also passionate about speed and motor racing. As a young amateur driver, he had always dreamed of taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but thought it was out of reach... until the day he told the management of BMW Motorsport about his idea to promote art by commissioning contemporary artists to decorate racing cars. The German manufacturer was seduced by the project and offered to supply one of its 3.0 CSLs on condition that no other sponsor was present on the bodywork and that BMW retained ownership of the car after the race. Thus, in 1975, the concept of ‘Art cars’ was born, with the first car painted by Alexander Calder causing a sensation at the Le Mans race. In the years that followed, Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol followed in Calder's footsteps, and even if none of the cars made it onto the podium, it was still a huge victory for Hervé Poulain, who had succeeded in his gamble of combining competition, design and art. True works of art on wheels, these unique pieces are now housed in the BMW Museum in Munich.

⋅ Publisher: Glénat
⋅ Pages: 48
⋅ Writer: Denis Bernard
⋅ Draughtsman: Christian Papazoglakis

Format: 24.2 x 32.2 cm