Guide: BMW Art Car #11 - BMW Z1 'A. R. Penck'
BACKGROUND
The eleventh creation in BMW’s Art Car series was the work of Ralf Winkler who was better known under the pseudonym, A. R. Penck.
BMW commissioned a flurry of Art Cars in the late 1980s and early 1990s; between 1989 and 1992 seven were completed to sit alongside the first half dozen that had been painted between 1975 and 1986.
A. R. Penck’s Art Car was uniquely based on a Z1 roadster.
BMW Z1
Built between 1988 and 1991, the Z1 was BMW’s first two-seat Roadster since the 507 which had nearly bankrupted the company as a result of higher than expected production costs.
The Z1 was initially a concept developed by BMW’s new R&D department, BMW Technik, which had been established in 1985 to come up with avant-garde concepts for future vehicles and technologies.
Assembled around an innovative steel monocoque, the Z1’s body was made entirely of easily removable injection-moulded thermoplastic panels. Undoubtedly the car’s most attention-grabbing feature was its vertically sliding electric doors that dropped into oversized sills.
Power came courtesy of BMW’s 2.5-litre Type M20 B25 straight six engine which was canted at 20° to allow a lower hood profile.
Precisely 8000 Z1s were manufactured before the model was discontinued.
One of the last 1991 examples was allocated to BMW’s Art Car programme.
A.R. PENCK
Self-taught German artist A. R. Penck held his first exhibition at the age of 17 and, in the years that followed, Penck devoted most of his time to the works of Picasso, Rembrandt and prehistoric cave paintings. In 1960/1961, the latter resulted in his famous silhouette ‘Matchstick Man’.
During the 1980s, Penck became one of the foremost exponents of New Figuration and his work was shown by major museums throughout the West.
In addition to stick figures and graphic icons reminiscent of the Neolithic era, Penck was an exponent of Asian calligraphy and graffiti art. He became best known for paintings with pictographic, neo-primitivist imagery of human figures and other totemic forms.
PENCK’S Z1
For his Art Car, Penck selected a Z1 painted Top Red with Dark Grey Nubuck and camouflage interior. The bright red roadster was then emblazoned with Penck’s signature symbols and legendary stick figures which resulted in one of BMW’s most appealing Art Cars.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: BMW - https://www.bmw.com
