You've Definitely Never Seen A BMW 7 Series Like This Before

This latest is a celebration of that art car collection and of 30 years of BMW Korea. The brand has partnered with Korean artist Lee Kun-Yong to create the latest. A 7 Series model that will be part of his Bodyscape series, specifically, an electric i7.

This BMW Delivers Less Fahrt, More Art
Most of the BMW Art Car series is created by artists putting brush to sheet metal. This one, though, is a wrap. Which could make it even more fleeting than most art, as even in storage, a wrap won't last forever. The artwork is part of Kun-Yong's Bodyscape series, which consists of works comprising "repetitive, precise gestures that depict the movement of the body in space... creating abstract worlds from the artist's physical traces." Kun-Yong is one of the founders of art group Space & Time, and has expressed his art through performance, abstraction, and using the human body as medium."

"I firmly believe that art can be the bridge between different objects, different people and even different perspectives," says Lee Kun-Yong. "Through this new collaboration, I hope to create new encounters and connections through art, and I am excited to see how this link between art and technology will develop."

The artist will create a new work on canvas to go along with the car. At Frieze Seoul, the art fair in Seoul's famous Gangnam district, Kun-Yong will use the 7 as an inspiration for another work as part of a live performance. "Inspired by his work on the BMW i7, he translates his thoughts on mobility, time and space into physical expression: for him, movement is not just speed. It is perception, interaction with the environment and the intimate dialogue between body and machine," says BMW.

50 Years And More Than 20 BMW Art Cars
There have now been more than 20 BMW Art Cars created. The first was a BMW 3.0 CSL that was actually entered and driven in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. BMW would come back to Le Mans the next year with a car from Frank Stella. This grid-lined car was, like the first Art Car, painted not by the artist but by BMW's own Walter Maurer.

Many of the Art Cars have been track-used racers over the years. They include a Group A M3 touring car, one of BMW's V12 LMR cars, and a series of other M3 and M6 racers. Some became icons, including the BMW M1 painted by Andy Warhol in just 28 minutes in 1979.

Some made the car the art, like Fire Fox on a Hare Hunt in 1982. Others, like Rauschenberg's 635 CSi the next year, used it as more of a canvas for traditional works. Every one of them has made a statement. Many have done that on the track, but only one has ever been driven on an open street.

Frieze Seoul 2025 runs September 3-6. The 7 Series art car will be on display for the run of the show.