Walter Maurer (artist)

In 2020, Walter Maurer also created the Artist's proof of the Art Car realised with Alexander Calder in 1975. Back in 1975, Alexander Calder and Walter Maurer were already considering the possibility of creating a second Art Car of the same design, which Calder would have liked to keep in his private collection. Due to Calder's untimely death in 1976, however, these plans could not be completed and were no longer pursued. In 2019, the Alexander Calder Foundation, headed by Alexander S. C. Rower, Alexander Calder's grandson, had the opportunity to acquire an identical model of the BMW 3.0 CSL and restore it with the aim of fulfilling the wish of his grandfather Alexander Calder and adding an Artist's Proof of the first BMW Art Car to the Foundation's collection. The Alexander Calder Foundation counted on the administrative support of BMW AG, which was as committed to the project as all the others involved. A prerequisite for Rower was that the Artist's Proof should also be carried out by Walter Maurer, who had also been responsible for the execution of the design paintwork in 1975 and who, as the last living artist of the 1975 project, could contribute his wealth of experience in the best possible way.

The German Air Force commissioned Walter Maurer threefold to paint three aircraft, two Bell UH-1D and a Transall C-160, with designs from the Come Together series under the theme "For Peace" in order to highlight the importance of the German Armed Forces as an army of peacekeeping. The German miniature model manufacturer Herpa also produced a 1:2000 miniature edition of the Für den Frieden Transall C-160, licensed by Walter Maurer.

In 1999, BMW Group came to the wish of having a BMW L7 designed jointly by two renowned artists and submitted the project proposal to Karl Lagerfeld and Walter Maurer. Maurer and Lagerfeld agreed and then set to work together, the result of which was presented in Paris in 2000. Walter Maurer was responsible for the exterior design of the car, while Karl Lagerfeld designed the interior. The interior is dominated by brown leather and burl wood in the style of the early 2000s. On the outside, Walter Maurer's design is characterised by a two-tone variant that combines the colours orange and brown in a soft gradient.

Besides his professional activities as a designer and artist, Walter Maurer also lectured on colour theory at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1991 to 2001. From 1984 to 2002, Walter Maurer was also academic director at the Glasurit School of Design of the BASF Group.

From the 1980s until the late 1990s, he also gained notoriety outside artistic circles in the motorsport scene, when he successfully competed with his BMW M1 ProCar (Group C) at international races.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Walter Maurer also caught the interest of the German car brand BMW, which invited him to collaborate as a co-artist on BMW Art Car projects and later as a designer.

In the early 1970s, on the initiative of Hervé Poulain, Walter Maurer began collaborating with various international artists, which later led to the legendary BMW Art Cars. As co-artist, Walter Maurer played a major role in the creation of the BMW Art Cars by Alexander Calder (1975), Frank Stella (1976), Roy Lichtenstein (1977), Andy Warhol (1979), Ernst Fuchs (1982) and César Manrique (1990).

During his studies in Munich, Walter Maurer launched his own business as a designer and painter at the beginning of the 1960s. After Maurer mainly did advertising and design paintwork for medium-sized and large transport companies and breweries and also designed logos during this time, his clientele expanded and he started to attract greater attention.

Walter Helmut Maurer (born March 20, 1942, in Dachau, Bavaria, Germany) is a German designer and artist.

Walter Maurer was born on 20 March 1942 in Dachau as son of a soldier and a housewife. After attending school, he decided to train as an illustration technician and subsequently studied graphic design in Munich.