(March 4, 2021) Acclaimed American artist Richard Phillips and Porsche have collaborated to create an exceptional work of art of Porsche’s first all-electric sports car, the Taycan. In December, the Taycan Artcar was created live at the Leuehof pop-up restaurant on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse. With the support of RM Sotheby’s, the single and unique piece will be auctioned globally from April 6 to April 13. All proceeds will be donated to Switzerland’s non-profit association Suisseculture Sociale. Porsche and its project partners thereby seek to support artists in Switzerland who have been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Porsche’s first purely electric sports car, the Taycan, represents a new chapter in the company’s history,” says Michael Glinski, CEO of Porsche Schweiz AG. “We wanted to capture this achievement by working together with a leading artist. The result is this creation, which reflects the guiding principles of sustainability and electromobility and of course also places a strong focus on nature in Switzerland.

"By auctioning the work and donating the proceeds we want to help the Swiss cultural landscape, which has been hit especially hard by the pandemic. Porsche has set a confident course through this crisis and we are eager to give something back to the community.”

The Leuehof restaurant from Nenad Mlinarevic and Valentin Diem, where the mobile artwork was created and exhibited, has been severely affected by the pandemic as well. As a partner of the restaurant, Porsche displayed the Artcar in their culinary art space. As a result of the measures adopted to contain the coronavirus, Leuehof had to close last December and will not be able to reopen, due to the regulations that remain in force.

The Taycan Artcar is actually the second round of collaboration between the New York-based artist Richard Phillips and the German sports-car maker. In 2019, Phillips worked with Porsche factory driver Jörg Bergmeister to design a Porsche art car, which then made history at the twenty-four-hour race in Le Mans. When the Porsche 911 RSR from Project 1 Motorsport crossed the finish line to win the GTE Am class, it was the first art car ever to take the laurels in what may well be the world’s toughest automotive endurance race.



To create the Taycan Artcar, Phillips applied his large-scale painting from 2010 entitled Queen of the Night — inspired by the work of legendary Swiss landscape artist Adolf Dietrich — to the body of a Porsche Taycan 4S.

The work shows a three-dimensional arrangement of elements and details of the eight-square-meter painting flowing organically up the front hood over the front fenders and across the doors, giving a feeling of speed with the leaves of the night bloom.

Moving toward the rear of the Taycan, the painted image glides over the roof and rear fenders as the flora opens to reveal the blue sky and attendant butterflies. “The Queen of the Night livery culminates at the rear of the car with its namesake blossom wrapping completely around the bumper while being dramatically lit up by the Taycan’s signature horizontal light bar,” as Phillips explains. “Conceptually, my Queen of the Night livery takes into consideration that the design of the Taycan is an instant icon of electric mobility and speed.

"Its lines and form are that of the artists and designers at Porsche who strove to communicate this feeling at first sight. I greatly respect this objective. The choice to work with my Dietrich-inspired painting was to reference the natural environment with its beauty and composition reimagined in concert with the sweeping gestures of the Taycan. Dietrich’s intimate relationship to the landscape was more than mere representation of the environment around him. It was to communicate the soul of Switzerland and Lake Constance. His art is universally recognized for this, and is something that I have been deeply moved by.”

The online auction will start on April 6 and run for seven days until April 13 on  www.rmsothebys.com. The lot includes an exclusive individually tailored tour of Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen — the birthplace of the Porsche Taycan — with Porsche AG’s head of the Taycan model range.

The Artcar itself is fitted with added, exceptional customized touches from the Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur: the illuminated door sill panels are inscribed “Queen of the Night” and door projectors illuminate Phillips’ signature onto the underfloor when the door is opened.

All of the project partners, including artist Phillips, RM Sotheby’s, and the Weiss Falk gallery in Basel, are forgoing a fee or commission to benefit the cause. Porsche Schweiz AG is contributing the Porsche Taycan 4S as well as all related costs to the auction. The entire proceeds will go to the Suisseculture Sociale association.