Chamberlain, John

Born in Rochester, Indiana, in 1927, Chamberlain served in the navy during the Second World War. After his service, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1951 to 1952 and both studied and taught at Black Mountain College in 1955 and 1956. After working with welded metal in the mid-1950s, when he was influenced by sculptor David Smith, Chamberlain began using the bodies of wrecked automobiles by 1958. These attracted immediate attention; he showed them at the Hansa Gallery in 1959 and exhibited with Martha Jackson in 1960 and he had the first of several shows with Leo C astelli in 1962. The Museum of Modern Art’s influential exhibition “The Art of Assemblage” included his work, and in 1964 he showed in the Venice Biennale. In the 1960s he continued exploring the possibilities of industrial and other non-traditional mediums: formica, crushed galvanized metal, paper bags, melted plexiglass, and urethane foam. The tension between the crushed metal and the slick newness of the paint, as in the Guggenheim’s Dolores

James (1962) is a hallmark of Chamberlain's work, exploring the intersection of mechanical perfection and the inevitable decay of new materials.

He again worked on large - scale pieces of auto parts in the early 1970s; these were assembled at the Texas ranch of collector Stanley Marsh until the mid-1970s. Chamberlain ha

d solo exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1967 and at the Guggenheim Museum in 1971. In 1986, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles hosted an important retrospective. Chamberlain’s sculpture is held by many museums around the world."

(Excerpted from "John Chamberlain Choices," February 24 - May 13, 2012. [ext. on Guggenheim website]).

His metal sculptures of crushed cars are on permanent display at DIA:Beacon in Upstate New York