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Lot Essay
An audacious and dazzling cascade of multicolored shapes and forms, this large-scale, almost seven-foot tall, sculpture is a striking example of John Chamberlain’s unique genius for transforming industrial materials into beautiful and original works of art. Chamberlain delighted in challenging conventional notions of what sculpture can be, drawing beauty and emotional intensity out of his rough materials, and in the process creating a joyful work that reflects traces of Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and the Duchampian readymade.
A freestanding sculpture in the round whose vertical reach extends almost seven feet in height, the very title itself of this work announces—with Chamberlain’s sly humor—its distinctive physical presence. Here is a grand tower of multicolored matte steel paired with bright shining chrome forms—the hard material crushed, shaped, twisted, and compressed until it metamorphoses into liquid undulations of form and color. Ribbons and streams of metal float down the sculpture’s periphery, while the work’s central mass is made up of larger, heavier, closely-fitted curving and twisting shapes that suggest rolling, sinuous waves of water. The close, seamless, almost organic way that Chamberlain fit the rough and uneven individual pieces of automobile scrap metal together reflect his exceptional ability to construct a harmonious work out of what had previously been simply an unrelated collection of raw materials.
Projecting dramatically upward, built up from layers of crushed metal sheets compressed and welded into a form compelling in its upward-reaching expression, the present work achieves a sense of dramatic presence while at the same time being possessed of a wonderful poise—the seemingly effortless balance it achieves is all the more remarkable given the density and heaviness of the steel materials Chamberlain was working with. This extraordinary work is a captivating example of abstraction in sculpture.
Colors flow from the sculpture’s surfaces: candy apple red, blue shadings from sky to ocean, primary orange, green pastels, neon yellows. Solid hues and rainbow stripes merge with Abstract Expressionist dripped-paint applications, splashes of color, and slashing brushstrokes. Occasionally portions of brown-gray unpainted metal show where pigment has been rubbed away, these rough surfaces contrasting with the glossy painted ones. The eye wanders across the surface of the sculpture, taking in the vivid individual hues, the alluring tonal juxtapositions, the way that Chamberlain matched shape with color. Coloration is a crucial aspect of so much of Chamberlain’s sculpture, as it is here. Chamberlain made the most of the “found” color already present in the automobile parts he used, often adding applied pigments as well, and introducing gesture through drips, splashes, and brushstrokes of paint.Tonal contrasts abound: dark against light, matte against glistening silver, bare metal against paint. The sheer exuberant profusion of colors evokes nothing so much as visions of fireworks displays or kaleidoscopes.
It is impossible to overstate the impact of color in Chamberlain’s sculpture. His art played a part in radically revising an earlier 20th Century sculptural tradition that had by and large avoided color prior to Chamberlain’s arrival. With works such as this, the artist helped to encourage the bold use of color in sculpture, where before it had been seen as the prerogative primarily of painters.
Although he made elegant and intriguing art works from a wide range of astonishing materials during his long career, Chamberlain is best known for sculptures such as the present example, works that helped to redefine a bold new approach to sculpture during the post-war period. He fashioned his unique creations from industrial steel, the painted, chrome plated, and stainless materials that defined the iconic 20th century look of the American automobile, transforming these castoff metal forms into stunning and original works of art. In Chamberlain’s hands, these rough materials assumed shapes that were remarkably graceful and voluptuous, as can be seen in the present work.
The forthrightly industrial nature of the materials is always apparent, never hidden. It is present in the corrugated folds, the densely-compressed waves, reminiscent of folded fabric yet fashioned from tough metal. The personality of the sculpture derives from the forces of bending, crushing, and crumpling, actions that were central to Chamberlain’s management of his medium and a defining feature of his work. He sought expressive possibilities through the diverse ways that his materials yielded to or resisted the forces of compression.
John Chamberlain was among a mere handful of truly trailblazing artists who worked in the mid to late 20th and early 21st centuries. He was an artist who introduced novel, new materials for creating sculpture, and new ways of presenting his work, both in indoor and outdoor settings. He helped to introduce techniques of collage to the three-dimensional medium of sculpture, observing “I’m basically a collagist. I put one thing together with another thing. I sort of invented my own art supplies” (Quoted in J. Chamberlain and S. Davidson, John Chamberlain: Choices, New York, 2012, p. 27).
A freestanding sculpture in the round whose vertical reach extends almost seven feet in height, the very title itself of this work announces—with Chamberlain’s sly humor—its distinctive physical presence. Here is a grand tower of multicolored matte steel paired with bright shining chrome forms—the hard material crushed, shaped, twisted, and compressed until it metamorphoses into liquid undulations of form and color. Ribbons and streams of metal float down the sculpture’s periphery, while the work’s central mass is made up of larger, heavier, closely-fitted curving and twisting shapes that suggest rolling, sinuous waves of water. The close, seamless, almost organic way that Chamberlain fit the rough and uneven individual pieces of automobile scrap metal together reflect his exceptional ability to construct a harmonious work out of what had previously been simply an unrelated collection of raw materials.
Projecting dramatically upward, built up from layers of crushed metal sheets compressed and welded into a form compelling in its upward-reaching expression, the present work achieves a sense of dramatic presence while at the same time being possessed of a wonderful poise—the seemingly effortless balance it achieves is all the more remarkable given the density and heaviness of the steel materials Chamberlain was working with. This extraordinary work is a captivating example of abstraction in sculpture.
Colors flow from the sculpture’s surfaces: candy apple red, blue shadings from sky to ocean, primary orange, green pastels, neon yellows. Solid hues and rainbow stripes merge with Abstract Expressionist dripped-paint applications, splashes of color, and slashing brushstrokes. Occasionally portions of brown-gray unpainted metal show where pigment has been rubbed away, these rough surfaces contrasting with the glossy painted ones. The eye wanders across the surface of the sculpture, taking in the vivid individual hues, the alluring tonal juxtapositions, the way that Chamberlain matched shape with color. Coloration is a crucial aspect of so much of Chamberlain’s sculpture, as it is here. Chamberlain made the most of the “found” color already present in the automobile parts he used, often adding applied pigments as well, and introducing gesture through drips, splashes, and brushstrokes of paint.Tonal contrasts abound: dark against light, matte against glistening silver, bare metal against paint. The sheer exuberant profusion of colors evokes nothing so much as visions of fireworks displays or kaleidoscopes.
It is impossible to overstate the impact of color in Chamberlain’s sculpture. His art played a part in radically revising an earlier 20th Century sculptural tradition that had by and large avoided color prior to Chamberlain’s arrival. With works such as this, the artist helped to encourage the bold use of color in sculpture, where before it had been seen as the prerogative primarily of painters.
Although he made elegant and intriguing art works from a wide range of astonishing materials during his long career, Chamberlain is best known for sculptures such as the present example, works that helped to redefine a bold new approach to sculpture during the post-war period. He fashioned his unique creations from industrial steel, the painted, chrome plated, and stainless materials that defined the iconic 20th century look of the American automobile, transforming these castoff metal forms into stunning and original works of art. In Chamberlain’s hands, these rough materials assumed shapes that were remarkably graceful and voluptuous, as can be seen in the present work.
The forthrightly industrial nature of the materials is always apparent, never hidden. It is present in the corrugated folds, the densely-compressed waves, reminiscent of folded fabric yet fashioned from tough metal. The personality of the sculpture derives from the forces of bending, crushing, and crumpling, actions that were central to Chamberlain’s management of his medium and a defining feature of his work. He sought expressive possibilities through the diverse ways that his materials yielded to or resisted the forces of compression.
John Chamberlain was among a mere handful of truly trailblazing artists who worked in the mid to late 20th and early 21st centuries. He was an artist who introduced novel, new materials for creating sculpture, and new ways of presenting his work, both in indoor and outdoor settings. He helped to introduce techniques of collage to the three-dimensional medium of sculpture, observing “I’m basically a collagist. I put one thing together with another thing. I sort of invented my own art supplies” (Quoted in J. Chamberlain and S. Davidson, John Chamberlain: Choices, New York, 2012, p. 27).