Andy Warhol: Cars

Exhibitions

8 - 23 September 2001

The Andy Warhol Cars exhibition, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, opens at Milton Keynes Gallery on Saturday 8 September. The 28 works, comprising 17 silkscreens and 11 drawings of Mercedes-Benz cars date from 1986 and 1987. The exhibition is on loan for two weeks from the DaimlerChrysler Collection in Germany and this is the first time they have been shown in the UK.

Cars was Warhol’s last cycle of paintings, remaining incomplete at the time of his death in 1987. Commissioned by Mercedes-Benz in the mid-1980s to celebrate their centenary, the series was to have included 20 different Mercedes models, chosen to document the history of the car. Of the 80 pictures planned, only 36 paintings and 13 drawings featuring 8 different models were finished, and 28 of these will be shown at MK G. The subjects include the earliest three-wheeler Benz of 1886, a Mercedes Touring Car from the 1920s, a classic 1937 racing car, coupes and Formula 1 cars from the 1950s, and finally an experimental Mercedes-Benz from 1970. The resulting canvases of stylishly contoured cars in glowing colours are both sensual and seductive.