Vintage vehicles take over Shoreditch carpark

A bare, concrete carpark in Shoreditch is transformed by brightly-coloured cars decorated by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and David Hockney amongst others.

This is the first time the collection of 16 decorated BMWs, belonging to the Institute of Contemporary, Arts has come to the UK.

The cars date from 1975-2010 and also include vehicles transformed by Alexander Calder and Jeff Koons.

The collection begun when French racing driver and auctioneer Herv Poulain asked his friend Alexander Kalder to design a car that brought artistic excellence to ‘an already perfect object’. The end result was a racing car that competed in the Le Mans 24 hour race in 1975.

So the BMW art car was born and soon other artists got on board, including David Hockney who painted the inside of the car on the outside in 1995.

Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used cars as a canvas to create representations of speed

Art Drive! – The BMW Art Car Collection is open until August 4 at NCP Great Eastern Street Car Park, Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3ER. Admission is free.