Calder and the CSL

Now I know we might be accused of becoming a little obsessed with the rakish lines of the BMW CSL of late, and that we also bang on a little about the relationship between art and the car.

But indulge us on a little bit of Friday morning admiration.

Imagine being able to make a living from a) driving cars quickly, and b) from painting colourful creations, making mobiles and innovative scultpures in all the colours of the pallete. That’s one thing that seem to us a healthy aspiration.

When you combine these two things, then something special just may happen.

When French gallerist and racing driver Hervé Poulain commissioned American born avant garde artist Calder to tag up his CSL in 1975, it was a stroke of genius in itself.

Calder’s art was all about movement and colour in space – the man was after all in credited with the invention of the now kid-bedroom-standard ‘mobile’.

Three strokes of genius. BMW’s Poulain’s and Calder himself.

That’s what we call the art of the motor.