John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain was born in 1927 in Rochester, Indiana, and grew up in Chicago. After serving in the US Navy from 1943 to 1946, spending nearly three years on an aircraft carrier, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1951 to 1952, where he started creating welded steel sculptures influenced by David Smith. He then studied at Black Mountain College in North Carolina from 1955 to 1956, where he was surrounded by poets like Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, and Charles Olson, fostering an appreciation for poetry and considering language as part of his artistic approach.

Chamberlain moved to New York and, the following year, created Shortstop, his first sculpture using automobile parts. He continued to explore the potential of chrome, flaking paint, hard edges, and voluminous folds by using scrap metal from cars. By 1958, he focused on sculptures made entirely of crushed automobile parts. His first major solo show was held at the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, in 1960. In 1961, his work was included in ‘The Art of Assemblage’ at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, displayed alongside Futurist, Surrealist, and Cubist works.

In the early 1960s, Chamberlain's work gained critical acclaim, earning him a reputation as a three-dimensional Abstract Expressionist. He frequently exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York from 1962, and his work was featured at the Venice Biennale in 1964. From 1963 to 1965, he created geometric paintings with sprayed automobile paint. In 1966, the same year he received his first fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, he started making urethane foam sculptures. Chamberlain also began incorporating materials like galvanised steel and mineral-coated Plexiglas, consistently seeking the right "fit" for his compositions.

Chamberlain's choice of materials was influenced by his various residences across America. He lived in New York City, Long Island, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Connecticut, and Sarasota, each location contributing to his material sensibility. In New York City, he used scrap metal and acoustic tiles from his studio ceiling, urethane in Los Angeles, and film in Mexico in 1968, which lead him to create the film The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez starring Andy Warhol's “superstars,” Taylor Mead and Ultra Violet.

In 1970, Chamberlain created sculptures from heat-crumpled Plexiglas. His work was showcased in a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1971. By the mid-1970s, he returned to predominantly using automobile parts, cutting and painting the metal to expand his technique. Seeking a larger studio, he moved to Sarasota, Florida, in 1980, where he created the Gondolas series (1981–82) and the Giraffe series (circa 1982–83), where he sandblasted painted car metal to reveal the raw surface.

Chamberlain described his use of automobile materials as sculptural self-portraits, reflecting his personal evolution. His dynamic spatial abstractions extended to film, photography, prints, paintings, reliefs, and masks. His Barges series (1971–83) consisted of foam couches inviting visitors to lounge. In 1989, he began making colourised panoramic photographs using a moving camera, calling them "self-portraits of [his] nervous system."

In 2007, Chamberlain created large-scale versions of his mid-1980s miniature foil sculptures. These monumental works retained the lightness and spontaneity of the originals. The titles of these sculptures, such as FROSTYDICKFANTASY (2008) and PINEAPPLESURPRISE (2010), showcased his whimsical humour, technical mastery, and dynamic expression.

Chamberlain received numerous honours, including the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture (1993) and the Distinction in Sculpture (1999) from the International Sculpture Center, New Jersey, USA; the Gold Medal (1997) from the National Arts Club, New York, USA. In his later years, he expanded his œuvre to include large-format photographs printed on canvas and altered with digital effects. John Chamberlain passed away on 21 December, 2011, in New York. A retrospective of his work, 'John Chamberlain: Choices,' was held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York from 24 February to 13 May, 2012.