4 - John Chamberlain (American, 1927-2011)

John Chamberlain (American, 1927-2011) Madison - 1965 Welded painted steel 51 x 66 x 40,5 cm Provenance: M. & Mrs. Abe Adler, Los Angeles, CA (1978) The Robert and Suzanne Pannier Collection, Bruges Published: André Gordts, Beelden voor heden [exhibition catalog], De Ronde Tafel, Kortrijk, 1985, pp.17, 20 (ill.) Julie Sylvester, John Chamberlain: a catalogue raisonné of the Sculpture 1954-1985, Hudson Hills Press, New York, cat.210 (ill.) Exhibited: Bank Brussel Lambert, Kortrijk, Beelden voor heden, 26 May - 15 June 1985, p.20 (ill.) The New York art world of the 1960s was defined by the simultaneous presence of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art and the emerging language of Minimalism. Chamberlain's sculptures, assembled from crushed automobile body parts, introduced a sculptural language unlike anything that had preceded it, yet one that resonated closely with the artistic preoccupations of its time. The choice of salvaged automotive steel immediately established an affinity with Pop Art, recasting one of the defining symbols of post-war American consumer culture as abstract sculpture. At the same time, his disciplined restriction to a limited range of industrial materials recalls the economy that became central to Minimalism. Its compressed energy, gestural movement and vivid colour have often prompted descriptions of Chamberlain's work as Abstract Expressionism in three dimensions. Despite their apparent spontaneity, Chamberlain's sculptures are never accidental accumulations of found objects. He repeatedly insisted that every fragment was deliberately selected, and that the success of a work depended upon what he called "the fit": the intuitive yet highly considered process through which each element found its precise place. The crushed steel retains traces of its previous existence, yet these fragments are transformed into carefully balanced assemblages in which proportion, tension and rhythm assume primary importance. The resulting compositions possess an internal coherence that recalls principles more readily associated with classical sculpture than with industrial debris. A resemblance has occasionally been noted between the folded surfaces of Chamberlain's compressed steel and the elaborate drapery we find in Gothic and Renaissance art. It is unlikely that such echoes were intentional, yet the comparison reveals an intriguing layer within his visual language. The cascading folds so familiar from the drapery of saints in Gothic and Renaissance art seem to migrate in Chamberlain's sculptures towards a very different icon of post-war America: the automobile. Without implying deliberate symbolism, this unexpected continuity invites the thought that formal archetypes can survive profound shifts in cultural meaning, carrying with them a lingering sense of familiarity even as they come to inhabit an entirely different world. Created in 1965, Madison belongs to the period in which Chamberlain's mature sculptural language found its fullest articulation. The composition is constructed from two pieces of salvaged automobile steel, one in a pale metallic green, the other in a vibrant burgundy red. The opposing masses appear to pivot around one another with an unexpected lightness, lending the composition an almost airborne quality. It is precisely in this orchestration of colour, volume and balance, achieved through Chamberlain's intuitive understanding of "the fit", that the distinctive character of his work becomes most fully apparent. Madison exemplifies the artist's mature vocabulary during one of the defining moments in the development of post-war American sculpture.