Cars and Art
From the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection—From Andy Warhol to Kirsten Mosher
An important step towards internationalization the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection in 1986 was a commission extended to Andy Warhol to mark the company’s 100th anniversary: the Cars series was to have included 80 pictures, but only 36 pictures and 13 drawings had been completed when he died in 1987. A second commission went to the New York artist Robert Longo, who produced a series of five black-and-white ‘portraits’ and a full-wall airbrush painting of Mercedes-Benz models from 1995–1998.
The groups of works by Longo and Warhol presented as a special exhibition are complemented by sculptures and picture objects whose shiny lacquered surfaces pick up car design and aesthetics or go back to signals and graphics from the world of cars (Flaig, Miller, Posenenske, Roehr, Szarek), and also by video works referring to motor racing, city traffic and car advertising (Fleury, Mosher).