John Chamberlain brought art into the crumple-zone: The American artist squeezed, deformed, welded and pressed scrap into new forms, giving a fresh gloss and a new shape to that which was to be thrown away and destroyed. Alongside, he also had success as a photographer.
(...) Continue readingJohn Chamberlain – A soldier and hairdresser discovers art
John Angus Chamberlain was born in Rochester, Indiana USA on 16 April 1927. During the Second World War, he served almost three years on an American marine’s aircraft carrier – as a hairdresser. The journeys across the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean influenced the budding artist’s perception greatly, and led to a certain restlessness which culminated later in frequent changes of residence. On his return to the USA, John Chamberlain worked for a time as a hairdresser in Detroit, but took courses at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1951 and 1952. His tendency towards art continued to grow and in 1955, Chamberlain began studies at the Black Mountain College in South Carolina. There he made the acquaintance of many of the great artists of his time, including Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. His encounters with these personalities encouraged Chamberlain in his chosen path, and in 1956 took him to New York where he found his own style as an artist.
Assemblages and sculptures from waste
John Chamberlain did not swap his comb for a paintbrush, but rather for a welding machine. With this tool, he translated the pictorial language of Abstract Expressionism, which fascinated him, into sculptures. As early as the late 1950s, he discovered his preferred material of car scrap, which he went on to use extensively. He was soon regarded as one of the most important representatives of Junk Art and in 1957 was able to open his first solo exhibition. In the following years, the artist often moved home and experimented with various forms and materials. In New Mexico he dabbled in sculptures made of polyurethane foam and fiberglass, followed by further steel sculptures. In 1968, John Chamberlain filmed Wedding Night, his first film, and further film projects such as The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez followed. He retired to a farm in Amarillo in 1972 where his work series Texas Pieces was created.
Large sculptures and ethereal photography
In 1977, John Chamberlain also turned to photography where he concentrated in particular on panorama shots. A lively interaction developed between the two art forms: whilst he capitalised on the sheer force and thus intense physicality of the material used for his sculptures, the photographs lacked this physical presence. The contours seemed fleeting and out of focus, but captured multiple perspectives through the photographer’s movements and long exposure, achieving an almost cinematic effect. John Chamberlain received prizes and honours for his work, including Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Design. John Chamberlain’s art found admirers in particular in Germany: The German art dealer, publisher and gallerist Karsten Greve is considered a great collector and dealer of his work, and his sculpture Turm von Klythie can be admired in the Berlin shopping centre Friedrichstadt-Passagen.
John Chamberlain died on 21 December 2011 in New York City.
John Chamberlain - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
