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The first of
four new Fiat 500 cars illustrated by renowned English
artist, Tracey Emin, has been sold at auction for £42,000.
The work, entitled ‘I Told You Not To’, is one of four
specially designed and painted examples of the supermini,
which have taken the art world by storm. Described as taking
Emin’s work “quite literally out of the gallery and on to
the street”, the cars have created the first moving
exhibition of its kind.
The 500 went
under the hammer for $85,000 last Saturday (13 October)
during the Contemporary Art Auction at the Phillips de Pury
& Company saleroom in London. Proceeds from the sale will go
to the artist’s chosen charity PEAS, which is raising funds
for a school library in Uganda. Additional funds will also
help establish future Fiat art projects in London. The three
other 500s with Emin designs will also be offered at
auction, one before the end of the year and two in 2008.
Emin painted the
cars as part of her mobile exhibition in London Frieze week
– reported The Independent newspaper. Tracy Emin used
another one of her customised versions of the car to drive
to the Royal Academy of Art's annual dinner, where she was
guest of honour. The car, entitled You Go Around Me,
featured a drawing of a kneeling, naked woman on the front
door in the artist's simple, signature style. Beneath the
woman is the stem of a plant, that goes right around the
exterior of the car, flowering just above the headlight.
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Described as taking Tracey Emin’s work “quite
literally out of the gallery and on to the street”,
the cars have created the first moving exhibition of
its kind. |
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The first of four new Fiat 500 cars illustrated by
renowned English artist, Tracey Emin, has been sold
at auction for £42,000. |
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"I really enjoyed working on the Fiat 500, which I refer to
as the 'mouse car'", the artist told The Independent.
Emin deliberately chose not to play up to the size of the
car with saccharine drawings, instead opting for more
shocking works, featuring naked figures in sexualised
positions. "It was tempting to make them even more
super-cute, but instead I decided to give them an edge",
said Emin.
The two other
cars are called Love is Love, Dark Dark Dark, are similarly
personal works. The designs were all printed on the vehicles
using similar technology to photo processing. Susie Allen of
Artwise, who curated the project, told The Independent:
"Lots of artists have worked on one car, but nobody has ever
done a fleet of cars before. Tracy wasn't sure about working
with cars at first, but when she heard it was the
Cinquecento, she got really excited. Apparently it used to
be known as the mouse car, and Tracy loves mice."
The Fiat 500
range goes on sale throughout the UK with a choice of petrol
and diesel engines and three trim levels, in January 2008.
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