The E22 showing El Greco livery

On the initiative of its owner Gérard Lopez the Lotus F1 Team will pay homage to Spanish painter El Greco with a special livery for the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix on 9-11 May.

The team’s E22 will feature branding of the major El Greco exhibition currently taking place in Toledo which commemorates the 400 years since the death of a leading figure of the Spanish Renaissance through his work as a painter.

A commemorative helmet will be presented to the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy on 8 May in La Moncloa, and to His Majesty King Juan Carlos I during his planned visit to the Lotus F1 Team motorhome at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday 11 May.

Says Lopez:

“This is the first time a Formula 1 team has publicised a Spanish cultural event so prominently. We will promote the El Greco exhibition – for no commercial fee – to a global TV audience of over 600 million people. Through this the legend of El Greco will be displayed in support of Spanish Culture and cultural tourism in Spain.”

Gérard Lopez is no stranger to mixing art and sport. The son of Galician immigrants, Lopez is an expert in Asian art, and a collector of incunabula and historical automobiles.

The ‘El Greco’ exhibition in Toledo currently receives thousands of visitors as one of the largest ever to gather together practically every work by the sixteenth century painter.

El Greco is regarded as one of the greatest artists of Western civilisation, an accolade that has been formed over the last 100 years, changing opinions previously held regarding his paintings during the two and a half centuries following his death. Previously he was regarded as an eccentric painter marginal to art history.