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luglio 21, 2022 - Mercedes-Benz

“Andy Warhol: Cars ” – Mercedes-Benz Art Collection shows Warhol's masterpieces in Los Angeles

Comunicato Stampa disponibile solo in lingua originale. 

Jul 21, 2022Stuttgart/Los Angeles

  • July 23, 2022 to January 22, 2023 at the #petersenautomotivemuseum in Los Angeles
  • Exhibition presents 40 artworks from Andy Warhol's important Cars series
  • Works are exhibited together with five of the #mercedesbenz vehicle models portrayed by Warhol
  • Series is back in the US for the first time in over 30 years

From July 23, 2022 to January 22, 2023, the #mercedesbenzartcollection will showcase some of its most top-class and arguably best-known treasures at the #petersenautomotivemuseum in #losangeles: the exhibition "Andy Warhol: Cars - Works from the #mercedesbenz Art Collection" presents 27 screen prints on canvas and 13 drawings from Andy Warhol's world-famous Cars series. In the pictures, the American pop artist uses eight selected #mercedesbenz models to document the history of the automobile – from the Benz Patent Motor Car of 1886 to the C 111-II research car constructed in 1970. At the #petersenautomotivemuseum – one of the largest #automotive museums in the world – the works are on display together with five of the eight vehicles portrayed by Warhol – including the #mercedesbenz Formula One racing car W 196 R with streamlined body, the #mercedesbenz 300 SL “Gullwing” Coupé (W 198) and the #mercedesbenz 750-kilogram formula racing car W 125.

Renate Wiehager, Head of the #mercedesbenzartcollection: "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 will now be seen again extensively in the US. The name Warhol has a ‘mythical’ attraction in the context of art, as the visitor numbers to his exhibitions show. This is also true of the brand name #mercedesbenz in its context, which – materialised in the symbol of the star – has a secure field of connotations: beautiful, fast, modern, luxurious, quality."

Renata Jungo Brüngger, Member of the Board of Management of #mercedesbenz Group for Integrity and Legal Affairs, is also responsible for the #mercedesbenzartcollection: "We are delighted to once again make these great pictures accessible to a broad international audience in the #losangeles exhibition and thus contribute to the promotion of culture and education. Because that is precisely the point of our art collection: with our social commitment to culture and education, we want to create a recognizable benefit for the common good. Andy Warhol's artworks have inspired people for generations – just like #mercedesbenz vehicles. Two top brands meet in the Cars series."

The Cars series: Legendary liaison between #andywarhol and Mercedes-Benz

The series Cars is one of the last coherent groups of works by #andywarhol before his death in February 1987. The artist created the series at the turn of the year 1986/87 on behalf of the then Daimler-Benz AG on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the automobile. Originally, 80 pictures of 20 car models from eight different decades were planned, but only 36 screen prints on canvas and 13 drawings could be completed. To date, 30 screen prints and the drawings from the series are part of the #mercedesbenzartcollection. The works are accessible at the various #mercedesbenz Group sites to employees and to public in registered guided tours.

Renate Wiehager: "Warhol saw himself as a partner of commissioning situations whose aim was to transfer a product into another context: into the context of art, into the context of the ‘Warhol aura’. However, such a product transfer succeeds above all when two products meet on the same plane. The commission alliance between #andywarhol and #mercedesbenz can be described as a stroke of luck on ‘equal terms’. Two top products have met here, each of which is absolutely ‘top’ in its field."

In his Cars series, #andywarhol devoted himself for the first time to an industrial product of European origin. After the “Coca-Cola Bottles”, the “Campbell's Soup Cans” or the dollar bills that made the American famous in the 1960s, a brand legend of German #automotive history is now the focus of his art. With the eight vehicle models portrayed, Warhol simultaneously shows the changeability and the historical character of a product. For Warhol's earlier series with motifs from Campbell's, Heinz or Del Monte, it was of central importance that the American products were deliverable everywhere and endlessly available. In Warhol's paintings of the 1980s, this “now-temporality” transforms into an attitude that also allows for the past and development.

Further information in the press release to download