Transforming the washed out NCP car park on Great Eastern Street into a block-rockin art space, the ICA have brought together sixteen internationally renowned artists over thirty-five years, for a two week exhibition, Art Drive!
Click images to enlarge.
BMWs, made over by names such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein, are laid out as splashes of colour over six bleak and breezy car park levels. The first Art Car was commissioned by auctioneer and racing driver, Hervé Poulain, painted in 1975 by American artist Alexander Calder and competed in the Le Mans 24-hour race. It didn’t stand a chance of winning but that wasn’t the point. Poulain aspired to merge art with design and Calder could not resist the opportunity of a mobile canvas. Sixteen rolling sculptures have since been added to the collection. Cars are covered in pop-art polka-dots by Roy Lichtenstein, intricate truisms by Jenny Holzer, painted inside out by David Hockney and hand-painted (and completed in 28 mins) by Andy Warhol. Taking speed as his inspiration, Warhol slicked the paint on thick with a pastel palette, blurring and overlapping the colour boundaries.
Keeping with the theme of speed, the vehicles will be leaving the car park in a flash on 4th August so boy-racers and art-enthusiasts get down to Shoreditch to soak up the free art.
Art Drive runs at NCP Multi-storey car park, Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch until 4th August.
Text: Felicity Kinsella
Images from left: Andy Warhol; Andy Warhol’s car design; César Manriqu; Roy Lichtenstein; Roy Lichtenstein’s car design; Esther Mahlangu; David Hockney; David Hockney’s car design.
