15 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION John Chamberlain Untitled 1967 galvanized steel 25 1/2 x 17 x 20 1/2 in. (64.8 x 43.2 x 52.1 cm) This work has been recorded in the archives of the John Chamberlain studio.
Provenance Leo Castelli Gallery, New York Alan and Dorin Freedman, New York, 1968 Danese Gallery, New York Private Collection Christie's, New York, Post-War and Contemporary Art, November 14, 2007, lot 142 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Literature J. Sylvester, John Chamberlain A Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculpture 1954 - 1985, New York, 1986, p. 101, no. 309 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay “The Galvanized sculptures began with fabricated boxes; they were something like forty-two inches high, eighteen inches deep, maybe twenty-eight inches wide. They had the same proportions as the cigarette packs I'd been crushing when I sat around in bars, drinking a lot and making sculpture out of cigarette packs as we emptied them." John Chamberlain 1980sAmerican sculptor John Chamberlain is credited with transporting Abstract Expressionism into the third dimension. A notorious figure from the moment he entered the New York art scene in the late 1950s, Chamberlain undertook a tireless pursuit of materiality and form through a distinctly intuitive process. The story of how Chamberlain created his first sculpture is legend: while staying with friend and fellow artist Larry Rivers in 1957, Chamberlain discovered an old Ford truck rusting on the property. Inspired, he tore off the fenders and proceeded to drive over them with his car to shape and form the metal pieces into the shape he wanted before fitting them together to create Shortstop. It is this idea of "fit" that continued to be a guiding principle in Chamberlain’s work. Based on the implied relationship between size and scale, fit for Chamberlain is the sculptural equivalent of collage or assemblage on a monumental scale. Throughout his career, Chamberlain insisted that the materials he worked with, most famously car parts, was out of the abundance of availability and the cheapness at which they could be acquired. However, despite the convenience of these materials, each piece of "junk" was carefully chosen by Chamberlain via a process of active selection. By recontextualizing these materials as art, Chamberlain gave them new meaning. However, he continuously rejected any metaphorical connotations that could be derived from automobile associations; he maintained they were strictly an extension of Expressionism. Often using brightly colored sections of cars this readymade material, as it were, allowed Chamberlain to challenge traditional sculptural, as well as painterly, boundaries and essentially fuse, or rather fit, them together. Chamberlain has been associated with Expressionism, Pop Art and Minimalism; however, throughout his lifetime he upheld his position firmly as an abstract artist. While his fluid forms appear to be created through incident, Chamberlains works are the outcome of a combination of intellect and intent and retain a sense of control which is evident in the thoughtfully welded elements that transform each work into a highly sophisticated collage-like composition. Chamberlain’s crowning artistic achievement was the ease through which he appeared to deform hard metal as if it were merely crumpled paper. Each of Chamberlain’s works convey elegance and emotion. They are not about the magnitude or might of the material but about the balanced scale and volume that creates their spatial mass. The present lot is an example of a rare series of sculptures made of galvanized steel that were only produced between 1967 and 1969. Weary of the criticism that was plaguing his signature car part works that situated them as a commentary on American car culture, consumerism and taste, Chamberlain sought out other materials through which he could create sculptures so as to avoid then so called "car crash syndrome." Galvanized steel, an industrialized metal that has been processed with a protective coat of zinc to prevent rusting, provided a history-less material absent of narrative. It is these works that most strongly connect Chamberlain to Minimalism, and although
15 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION John Chamberlain Untitled 1967 galvanized steel 25 1/2 x 17 x 20 1/2 in. (64.8 x 43.2 x 52.1 cm) This work has been recorded in the archives of the John Chamberlain studio.
Provenance Leo Castelli Gallery, New York Alan and Dorin Freedman, New York, 1968 Danese Gallery, New York Private Collection Christie's, New York, Post-War and Contemporary Art, November 14, 2007, lot 142 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Literature J. Sylvester, John Chamberlain A Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculpture 1954 - 1985, New York, 1986, p. 101, no. 309 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay “The Galvanized sculptures began with fabricated boxes; they were something like forty-two inches high, eighteen inches deep, maybe twenty-eight inches wide. They had the same proportions as the cigarette packs I'd been crushing when I sat around in bars, drinking a lot and making sculpture out of cigarette packs as we emptied them." John Chamberlain 1980sAmerican sculptor John Chamberlain is credited with transporting Abstract Expressionism into the third dimension. A notorious figure from the moment he entered the New York art scene in the late 1950s, Chamberlain undertook a tireless pursuit of materiality and form through a distinctly intuitive process. The story of how Chamberlain created his first sculpture is legend: while staying with friend and fellow artist Larry Rivers in 1957, Chamberlain discovered an old Ford truck rusting on the property. Inspired, he tore off the fenders and proceeded to drive over them with his car to shape and form the metal pieces into the shape he wanted before fitting them together to create Shortstop. It is this idea of "fit" that continued to be a guiding principle in Chamberlain’s work. Based on the implied relationship between size and scale, fit for Chamberlain is the sculptural equivalent of collage or assemblage on a monumental scale. Throughout his career, Chamberlain insisted that the materials he worked with, most famously car parts, was out of the abundance of availability and the cheapness at which they could be acquired. However, despite the convenience of these materials, each piece of "junk" was carefully chosen by Chamberlain via a process of active selection. By recontextualizing these materials as art, Chamberlain gave them new meaning. However, he continuously rejected any metaphorical connotations that could be derived from automobile associations; he maintained they were strictly an extension of Expressionism. Often using brightly colored sections of cars this readymade material, as it were, allowed Chamberlain to challenge traditional sculptural, as well as painterly, boundaries and essentially fuse, or rather fit, them together. Chamberlain has been associated with Expressionism, Pop Art and Minimalism; however, throughout his lifetime he upheld his position firmly as an abstract artist. While his fluid forms appear to be created through incident, Chamberlains works are the outcome of a combination of intellect and intent and retain a sense of control which is evident in the thoughtfully welded elements that transform each work into a highly sophisticated collage-like composition. Chamberlain’s crowning artistic achievement was the ease through which he appeared to deform hard metal as if it were merely crumpled paper. Each of Chamberlain’s works convey elegance and emotion. They are not about the magnitude or might of the material but about the balanced scale and volume that creates their spatial mass. The present lot is an example of a rare series of sculptures made of galvanized steel that were only produced between 1967 and 1969. Weary of the criticism that was plaguing his signature car part works that situated them as a commentary on American car culture, consumerism and taste, Chamberlain sought out other materials through which he could create sculptures so as to avoid then so called "car crash syndrome." Galvanized steel, an industrialized metal that has been processed with a protective coat of zinc to prevent rusting, provided a history-less material absent of narrative. It is these works that most strongly connect Chamberlain to Minimalism, and although
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
