In a major step that is set to bolster The Global Africa Project’s initiative to find out the impact of African visual culture on traditional art, craft and design, German car giant BMW’s 1991 design of BMW 525i will be displyed at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York City from November17, 2010 to May 15, 2011. The car has been designed by eminent South African artist Esther Mahlangu in the traditional colors of her tribe Ndebele and will be featured in BMW’s Art Car program which is a part of the Global Africa Project.
Esther Mahlangu was born in 1936 in South Africa and her mother taught her the traditional painting art of her tribe. In this context, Esther Mahlangu said that her art conveys the idea of movement and has has evolved from Ndebele’s tribe’s tradition of decorating their homes.
In order to get a feel of the new medium Mahlangu started to paint the door of a different BMW before beginning to design with BMW 525i and she completed her work within one week. Notably several artists before Mahlangu have used cars manufactured by BMW to signify a particular period. Art cars designed by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney among others have been exhibited in celebrated museums of the world. The BMW Art Program has been going on for over 3 decades and has featured 17 art cars so far. Mahlangu earns the distinction of not being the first female but also the first African BMW Art car artist to join the art car program.
