American contemporary/Neo-Pop/Post-Pop artist Jeff Koons has followed in the footsteps of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Worhol, Ernst Fuchs, and other greats with his design for BMW’s 17th art car. Koons has taken the E92 BMW M3 GT2 car as his carte blanche and used God only knows for inspiration. All we know is that the result is attention-grabbing, unabashedly different, and the most exciting design at this year’s 24 Heures du Mans.

But who is Jeff Koons? And where else might we have seen his work?

If you’ve been to Bilbao, Spain, like I was last summer, you’ll find Koons’ famous “Puppy” – a 43 ft (12.4m) tall mix of steel and flowers. This is certainly one of his more notable pieces, although they’re all pretty notable – Koons has set a number of record sale prices at auctions for his work.

BMW has a history of choosing controversial artists and ending up with controversial art cars. I, for one, am glad that they have the courage to keep trying something different. Speaking of history and trying something different, if you look at the last decade, maybe picking Koons to design the 17th art car wasn’t such a surprise from the Bavarians. You may recall another American artist who stirred the pot at BMW in the last decade: Chris Bangle anyone?

[Photo credit: author]

[Video credit: YouTube]