Visual art · Artist commission · not ownership

Andy Warhol

1979 BMW M1 Group 4 Art Car

Andy Warhol’s red, green and blue BMW M1 Group 4 Art Car no. 76 displayed indoors.
The actual 1979 BMW M1 Group 4 Art Car no. 4 painted by Andy Warhol, still wearing its Le Mans race number 76, photographed in 2009.Photo: Marianne O'Leary · CC BY 2.0. Joyride serves the original Commons JPEG byte-for-byte; no crop, recompression, retouching or generation. A responsive frame may crop displayed edges.
Andy Warhol wearing clear-framed glasses in a 1975 identification portrait.
Andy Warhol1975 · Identification portraitWalter Mori · Public domain in Italy and the United States. Joyride serves the current Commons file byte-for-byte. No additional crop, retouching or generation. A responsive frame may crop displayed edges.

Twenty-eight minutes of paint, twenty-four hours of racing

Connection
Artist commission · not ownership
When
Painted for BMW · 1979
Identity
BMW Art Car no. 4 · M1 Group 4 · race no. 76

BMW commissioned Andy Warhol to create the fourth car in its Art Car series in 1979. Unlike the earlier artists, Warhol painted directly onto the BMW M1 Group 4 body rather than supplying a design for assistants to transfer. The Automobile Club de l’Ouest records that he completed the painting in 28 minutes.

This is an artist association, not a personal-ownership claim. The finished no. 76 M1 raced at the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans with Hervé Poulain, Marcel Mignot and Manfred Winkelhock, finishing sixth overall. The photographed car carries that exact livery and race number; it is not a road-going M1 painted to resemble the Art Car.

Follow the evidence

Sources for this story

BMW documents its commission and the M1 Group 4 identity. The 24 Hours of Le Mans organizer documents race number 76, the drivers and the sixth-place result. Neither source says Warhol owned the car.

Reviewed

Why this is the actual car
  • Photo identity evidence

    BMW identifies the fourth Art Car as the 1979 M1 Group 4 that Warhol painted for Le Mans.

  • Photo identity evidence

    The race organizer identifies the Warhol-painted M1 as no. 76 and records its 1979 Le Mans drivers and result.

  • Photo identity evidence

    The photographer identifies the subject as the Andy Warhol BMW M1; Commons classifies the file with the individual 1979 Le Mans car no. 76. The distinctive livery and no. 76 are visible.

The matching photographer, venue, date and vehicle history establish the identification; the chassis stamp is not visible in these photographs.