BMW has just announced that the 17th Art Car created by Jeff Koons will race where the first rolling masterpieces by celebrated artists, Calder, Stella, Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Holzer raced. Yes, this year too, the new BMW Art Car will participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Koons’ canvas was a BMW M3 GT2 and it has got official approval to take part in the endurance race. The artist’s preliminary sketches sound first class.

Roy Lichtenstein did it in 1977 and Koons will do it this year. Koons will present the world premiere and sign his car at Paris’ Centre Pompidou on June 1, 2010. Paris’ Centre Pompidou is one of the world’s most esteemed cultural institutions for modern and contemporary art. The Koons car number, “79,” pays accolade to the 1979 Andy Warhol car. The Warhol car was given the number “76,” as reverence to the 1976 Frank Stella car. Both cars had raced at the Le Mans. The BMW Art Cars, through the unique creations, from Roy Lichtenstein’s fluid 320i in 1977 to Jeff Koons’ new creation now, have been challenging the most legendary objects of our age, the car.

Koons took photographs of several race cars at speed, then stretched the images and integrated them into a gigantic digital collage. That collage is what’s getting spread all over the M3 GT2′s attractive lines. The artist looked at graphics of the earlier race cars, the light bursts and speed. The final graphic imagined by Koons is suggestive of power, motion and light. The artist uses his signature soaked shades on a black background set against the car’s silver interior, which he himself chose. The design passes on an energetic race car appearance even when it’s standing still. Koons felt that there was lot of power under that hood and wanted to let his ideas rise as high as the car, to bond with that power.

The artist has worked real hard. Joining hands with BMW’s team in Munich for months, Jeff Koons has combined his skills with the complicated BMW engineering. The result is finally going to be out. The 17th BMW Art Car is race-ready for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The artist successfully carried out profound explorations of materials and application options with help from the BMW engineering and design teams. This has proved crucial to optimizing both the visual and slick aspects of the race car. Working with actual 3-D computer-aided design models of the BMW M3 GT2, Koons could replicate the application of the graphic to the car’s surfaces and assess it from all angles.

Koons completely lived his job. He even put on a helmet and joined BMW’s American Le Mans Series race team for testing. He was able to experience the M3 GT2 at race speed that further prompted his design. He lived through the raw unfiltered performance of the M3 GT2 from the seat of a historic BMW M1 race car. Koons also drove a BMW M3 Coupe on the circuit to add on to the lively experience.

The BMW Motorsport Director, Mario Theissen has already announced the driver line-up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Andy Priaulx (GB), Dirk Muller (DE) and Dirk Werner (DE) will race the BMW Art Car #79. Jorg Muller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE) will drive the BMW Le Mans car #78.