Until January 2023, visitors to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles can admire some of the top-class and well-known treasures of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection: The exhibition “Andy Warhol: Cars – Works from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection” presents 27 screen prints on canvas and 13 drawings from the series “Cars” by Andy Warhol.
In the pictures, the American documented the history of the automobile using eight selected Mercedes-Benz models – from the Benz Patent Motor Car of 1886 to the C 111-II research vehicle constructed in 1970. In the Petersen Automotive Museum – one of the largest automobile museums in the world – the works can be seen together with five of the eight vehicles portrayed by Warhol – including the Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 racing car W 196 R with streamlined body, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing coupé (W 198) and the Mercedes-Benz W 125 formula racing car weighing 750 kilograms.
To know that Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987) was an important American artist, filmmaker, publisher and co-founder and important representative of American Pop Art, an average semi-educated person is enough. But who is well aware that Warhol dedicated one of his last coherent groups of works before his death to a German car icon? Probably only a few.
But at the turn of the year 1986/87, the artist created the “Cars” series on behalf of the then Daimler-Benz AG to mark the 100th birthday of the automobile. Originally 80 pictures with 20 car models from eight different decades were planned, of which only 36 screen prints on canvas and 13 drawings were completed. To this day, the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection owns 30 screen-printed images and the drawings from the series.
In his Cars series, Andy Warhol dedicated himself to an industrial product of European origin for the first time. After the “Coca-Cola Bottles”, the “Campbell’s Soup Cans” or the dollar bills that made the American famous in the 1960s, a brand myth from German automotive history was now the focus of his art.
Renate Wiehager, head of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, says: “Since the highly acclaimed presentation at the Guggenheim Museum New York in 1988, Andy Warhol’s Cars series has been a guest in major museums around the world. We are very pleased that after more than 30 years it can now be seen again extensively in the USA. As the number of visitors to his exhibitions shows, the name Warhol has a ‘mythical’ attraction in the context of art.”
And Renata Jungo Brüngger, Member of the Board of Management of the Mercedes-Benz Group for Integrity and Legal Affairs, who is also responsible for the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, adds: “We are delighted to be making these great pictures accessible to a broad international audience again in the exhibition in Los Angeles and thus make a contribution to promoting culture and education. Because that is precisely the purpose of our art collection: With our social commitment to culture and education, we want to create a recognizable benefit for the common good.”
Tickets for the exhibition and further information on the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles can be ordered online via the link www.Petersen.org. (awm)