On February 5, The Warhol Museum will open Warhol and Cars: American Icons, the first exhibition to examine Warhol’s lifelong  fascination with automotive vehicles and their role as products of American consumer society. Much like Canis Major: Andy Warhol’s Dogs and Cats (and other party animals), a collection of various animal pop portraits and other work that ran from January until May of 2008, it delves into the artist’s obsessive nature when it came to choosing his subjects.
The exhibition features more than forty drawings, paintings, photographs, and related archival material spanning from 1946 to 1986. Organized by the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, the collection traces the development of Warhol’s work with cars throughout his career. Highlights include a range of artwork representing everything from early silkscreen paintings to sketches.
Other selections in the exhibit will show that Warhol’s work on the subject went beyond the one-dimensional. An original BMW M-1 racing car hand-painted by Warhol will be on display in the entrance gallery, and a film of Warhol painting a BMW in 1979 as part of the BMW Art Race Car Projects introduced by French race car driver Herve Poulin will be on view. The car is part of the BMW Museum’s collection in Munich and was last displayed in the United States at Grand Central Terminal in New York City in 2009.

Warhol and Cars: American Icons will run until May 13.