South Africa: The BMW Art Car designed by contemporary artist Esther Mahlangu has found its way back to South Africa. It is for the first time in thirty years that something like this is happening.
Reportedly, BMW Art Car by Esther Mahlangu will be displayed at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. The designed car will be exhibited in ‘The Global Africa Project’.
South African artist Dr Esther Mahlangu became the first woman and first African to be invited to participate in the BMW Art Car Collection in 1991. Her car design of BMW 525i from 1991 was displayed at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City from Nov 17, 2010 to May 15, 2011.
The BMW Art Car, designed by a South African artist, is part of ‘The Global Africa Project,’ which explores the impact of African visual culture on contemporary Art, Craft, and Design around the world.
In consideration, the art car was amongst other notable artists, such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Frank Stella, and Roy Lichtenstein.
As per the sources, when the car was brought back to South Africa from New York, it was craned over the roof of the museum into the atrium and then pushed into the Lieberman room for the exhibition.
Mahlangu is happy to see her car back and says, “Then I knew I was good at painting.” The car can be seen openly by the public at the Iziko South African National Gallery till August 11, 2024.
Artist Mahlangu used the traditional painting technique of her African Ndebele tribe. The Ndebele technique is well-known for its stylistically distinctive design patterns, which were created exclusively by the women of the tribe.
Esther Mahlangu is considered as the leading representative of the Ndebele art form and has been acknowledged internationally for her work. The artist was born and brought up in South Africa in 1936 and was taught the traditional painting technique of the Ndebele tribe by her mother.
Esther, being the upholder of the traditions of her tribe, has already begun to pass on her knowledge to her daughter many years ago. The artist said that Ndebele’s art has an entirely natural way, which is something slightly formal but also very majestic.
She said, “Through my work I have added the idea of movement.”
The African painter commented on her work and mentioned, “My art has evolved from our tribal tradition of decorating the home.”
Moreover, by painting the BMW 525i, Mahlangu has passed on her tribe’s traditional means of expression to an object of contemporary technology.
Initially, to develop a feel for the completely new medium, the artist painted the door of another BMW before beginning with the design of the Art Car. In one week, she had transformed the car into a masterpiece of African Ndebele Art.