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John Chamberlain

New Sculpture

May 5–July 8, 2011
555 West 24th Street, New York

Installation view Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Robert McKeever

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Works Exhibited

John Chamberlain, AWESOMEMEATLOAF, 2011 Painted and chrome-plated steel, 106 × 118 ¾ × 82 inches (269.2 × 301.6 × 208.3 cm)© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, AWESOMEMEATLOAF, 2011

Painted and chrome-plated steel, 106 × 118 ¾ × 82 inches (269.2 × 301.6 × 208.3 cm)
© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, TAMBOURINEFRAPPE, 2010 Painted and chrome-plated steel, 116 ¾ × 90 × 86 ½ inches (296.5 × 228.6 × 219.7 cm)© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, TAMBOURINEFRAPPE, 2010

Painted and chrome-plated steel, 116 ¾ × 90 × 86 ½ inches (296.5 × 228.6 × 219.7 cm)
© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, WITCHESOASIS, 2011 Painted and chrome-plated steel, 84 ½ × 89 × 75 inches (214.6 × 226.1 × 190.5 cm)© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, WITCHESOASIS, 2011

Painted and chrome-plated steel, 84 ½ × 89 × 75 inches (214.6 × 226.1 × 190.5 cm)
© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, SUPERJUKE, 2011 Painted and chrome-plated steel, 117 × 72 ½ × 63 ¼ inches (297.2 × 184.2 × 160.7 cm)© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, SUPERJUKE, 2011

Painted and chrome-plated steel, 117 × 72 ½ × 63 ¼ inches (297.2 × 184.2 × 160.7 cm)
© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, PEAUDESOIEMUSIC, 2011 Painted and chrome-plated steel, 134 ¼ × 88 ⅛ × 80 inches (341 × 223.8 × 203.2 cm)© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

John Chamberlain, PEAUDESOIEMUSIC, 2011

Painted and chrome-plated steel, 134 ¼ × 88 ⅛ × 80 inches (341 × 223.8 × 203.2 cm)
© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

About

I think of my art materials not as junk but as garbage. Manure, actually—it goes from being the waste material of one being to the life-source of another.
—John Chamberlain

Gagosian is pleased to announce worldwide representation of John Chamberlain with an exhibition of new sculptures by the artist, to be presented concurrently at the 24th Street gallery in New York and the Britannia Street gallery in London.

Chamberlain is best known for his distinctive metal sculptures constructed from discarded automobile-body parts and other modern industrial detritus, which he began making in the late 1950s. His singular method of putting these elements together led to his inclusion in the paradigmatic exhibition The Art of Assemblage, at the Museum of Modern Art in 1961, where his work was shown alongside modern masters such as Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso.

Chamberlain’s sculptures boldly contrast the everyday, industrial origin of their materials with a cumulative formal beauty, often underscored by the given paint finish of the constituents. The process of construction has its roots in industrial fabrication, given that mechanical car crushers may impart preliminary form to the raw material, which Chamberlain then further manipulates. Visibly emphasizing the original seams as well as the physical trace of his sculptural manipulations, he constructs assemblages that emphatically unite seemingly disparate mechanical elements. Crumpling, crushing, bending, twisting, painting, and welding the metals to form individual objects, which may be further sprayed, he combines them into aggregations, often on a monumental scale. The new works are made of metal taken from midcentury American and European cars.

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