Powered by Art
Hamish Coney looks at an Auckland company that wins awards for imaginative arts sponsorship. The Bayerische Motoren Werke, or BMW to you and me, was founded in 1916. Over the last century the German marque has designed many of the most beautiful and technically advanced vehicles you might find. The gorgeous 507 roadster of the mid 1950s is a regular nominee for the most beautiful convertible ever made. Elvis himself was a famous former owner!
it still turns heads, as one K Road art dealer, who owns an immaculate example, regularly tells me.
When I was growing up in the 1980s the BMW 635 CSI was the dream machine of choice for me and my school chums. Even today
Perhaps the coolest BMWs are the stunning range of art cars that first began in the 1970s. Since 1975 major artists have been commissioned to paint a classic BMW. The first was Alexander Calder’s explosion of colour on that epitome 70s brute power, a 3.0CSL in race trim. This was followed by artists such as Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol’s M1, Robert Rauschenberg, David
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The first BMW art car by Alexander Calder from 1975
Hockney, Jenny Holzer and most recently Jeff Koons’ spectacular M3 GT2 in 2010. In this adventurous tradition Auckland’s Team McMillan BMW has been a serious supporter of the arts locally since the 1980s. In that time through the judicious intersection of arts sponsorship, commercial savvy and old-fashioned generosity, Team McMillan BMW has raised over $500 000 for charities dear to the company’s heart including Mercy Hospice, The Liggins Institute and the South Auckland Health Foundation. For Chief Executive Bob McMillan art, business and community support go hand in hand, “I’ve been very
fortunate in having a pretty successful business career over more years that I like to remember. In that time I’ve seen lots of worthwhile and very worthy causes seeking help of some kind or other, some of which I’ve had the good fortune to have been directly involved with, others I’ve just been on the periphery of and felt that I could help financially, or offer to assist and help make a difference to people who have a much greater need than me and my family. My own personal, company and staff contributions allow all of us to ‘feel good’, knowing that we are putting something worthwhile back into the community where there is a real need.
Hopefully, we’ve made a small difference.” In 2005 Team McMillan BMW instituted its own art award. Eleven leading artists were commissioned to decorate a customised E46 BMW bonnet with the resulting artworks to be auctioned for charity. Artists over the years including Russell Jackson, Martin Ball, Billy Apple, George Baloghy, Mary McIntyre, Neal Palmer and Jenny Dolezel to name a few, have created unique works on the unusual substrate. For the inaugural award in 2005 Fatu Feu’u was judged winner by Sir James Wallace. Judges since 2005 have included Warwick Brown, Dr. Rodney Wilson and Chris Saines, both former directors of