NEW YORK — Eighteen Andy Warhol paintings that have not been seen in the U.S. since 1986 will be among the showcase pieces in a new exhibition, “Famous Cars + Famous People,” at Drive In Studios here.
Mercedes-Benz commissioned the work, which has been tucked away in the company’s German offices until now. The luxury carmaker has rounded them up, as well as commissioned work from Robert Longo and newcomer-on-the-scene Kenzo Minami. The brand’s three-pointed star can be spotted throughout show, which opens April 3.
Jumbo-size images of Sophia Loren, Steve McQueen, Beyoncé Knowles and other Mercedes-driving celebrities will be projected on the walls, during the private opening-night party April 3. Loren, William Randolph Hearst, Picasso and Zsa Zsa Gabor are among the owners of a 300 SL Gul Wing, which was first built in 1954 with doors that open upward.
Also on view will be a W 196 Streamliner race car, which will be on loan from the Indianapolis Auto Museum. The incredibly-detailed car was hand assembled from more than 1,100 parts. Mercedes also will use the occasion to unveil its CLK63 AMG Black Series, on the eve of the International Auto Show. The new wheels will reportedly set drivers back $170,000. The engine is built by hand. Each car has a plaque with the name of the engineer who actually built it.
That meticulous industrial mind-set is something that appealed to Minami, a multidiscipline artist and designer. “I grew up surrounded by machinery in a small factory town near Osaka,” he said. “I feel comfortable with the smell of gasoline. My dad made parts for car engines.”
While driving is not a habit for Minami, who has spent half his life in Manhattan, he is keen on industrial design. Aside from making a name as an artist and selling a collection that is offered at Barneys New York and other stores, he has worked as a set designer, a motion graphics designer and pitched in on projects at MIT’s Media Lab. “For the work we do, the boundaries are getting more and more blurred,” he said. “Fashion is getting closer to art, for some people.”
To that end, actress and fashion trendsetter Chloë Sevigny will host the opening-night party. “She is someone Warhol would have loved and would have wanted to paint. She is cool and is always an individual about her fashion sense and movie decisions,” a Mercedes spokesman said.