24h Le Mans
The 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans featured the second BMW 3.0 CSL Art Car, with a contrasting style to the previous year. After Alexander Calder’s explosion of colour came a black and white grid design by Frank Stella based on oversize graph paper.
The BMW 3.0 CSL by Frank Stella fielded at the 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans introduced a striking new Art Car: a technical drawing becoming a work of art as the car’s livery.
Following on from the first Art Car, the BMW 3.0 CSL by Alexander Calder fielded in 1975, BMW continued the series, offering racegoers a new artistic experience. Once again, the Bavarian manufacturer chose an American artist to design a livery. Motorsport aficionado Frank Stella was said to be delighted – honoured even – to accept the commission. Stella’s design set colour aside to concentrate on structure.
The distinctive black and white made the BMW 3.0 CSL stand out from the crowd, with the previous year’s blocks of colour replaced by a reference to the squared paper used for technical drawing. The grid pattern highlighted the design of the car itself, as if it were wearing its structure on its bodywork. Applied by Walter Maurer, BMW’s bodywork artist, the paintwork turned the 3.0 CSL into a fast-moving graphical object, in stark contrast to the many coloured liveries in the field. “Painting cars, I think, is insanely difficult. You have to think of a new idea, and I didn’t think of this idea. It was just luck. It was the first thing that I did, but it worked out quite well,” said Stella.
The strict lines hint at the formidable machinery beneath. With 750hp, the BMW 3.0 CSL was quick, and required expert driving. In the hands of Brian Redman and Peter Gregg it lived up to its potential, clocking the eighth best time in qualifying. But Le Mans is unforgiving and an oil issue forced withdrawal from the race.The car was not necessarily destined to win Le Mans, but “They just wanted to take the lead, so that they could be in the newspapers. [The car] turned out to be a bonanza, because black and white reproduces really well so it separated itself from the field, you could really see it in the photos. So, it really served its purpose.”
Frank Stella’s career took a new turn thanks to the Art Car. A three-dimensional design was very different to flat surfaces. It fleshed out his work. “The car must have had some influence because after that I tried to make shapes that were wavy and had more volume.”
The BMW 3.0 CSL by Frank Stella confirmed the Art Car as an annual statement by BMW at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As a reflection on volume, speed and perception, Stella’s work confirmed the Art Car’s status as part of the culture of the world’s greatest endurance race.
In a tribute to a half-century of fantastic liveries, this year’s Rétromobile show (28 January to 1 February at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles) will be showcasing the seven 24 Hours of Le Mans BMW Art Cars, including the BMW 3.0 CSL by Frank Stella.
