Currently on exhibition through May 13, John Chamberlain: Choices includes a stunning selection of sculptural works from the duration of his career and following up his first 1971 Guggenheim retrospective organized by Diane Waldman.
Chamberlain’s sculptures, fabricated out of scrap metal from the late 1950s until his death in 2011, functioned as the most iconic three-dimensional counter-part to Abstract-Expressionist painting. Chamberlain identified himself as a selective salvager and collagist.
In an early interview with Walden, Chamberlain describes the first time he considered using the automobile as sculptural material:”Then I went to Larry Rivers’ place and he had some old car parts out there — a ’29 Ford, and it was a different proposition.” Several months later, Chamberlain realized the junkyards offered him seemingly endless material free of charge: “– free material at that time was essential. And here it was, free steel that was already painted.”
Choices chronicles the expanse of Chamberlain’s career paying close attention to his earlier “car-crash” works while including lesser-known renderings of paper, Plexiglass, aluminum foil, and foam while including even a work entitled “C’estzesty” from 2011.
View the Guggenheim’s interactive online exhibition of John Chamberlain: Choices
Images © John Chamberlain / VG Bild-Kunst, John Chamberlain/Artists Rights Society (ARS) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.