|
From 1955 to 56 he studied and taught sculpture at the
Black Mountain College, near Asheville, North Carolina
where he met poets and other artists. In 1957, a pivotal
year in his career, he began to use scrap metal from
cars in his work and had his first solo show in 1960 at
the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York City. Following
this, his works were widely represented at the Museum of
Modern Art, at the Sao Paulo Biennale, Leo Castelli's
gallery and more.
He experimented with different mediums: galvanized
steel, Plexiglas, rubber, aluminum foils, even brown
paper bags and stated: "I think of my materials not as
junk but garbage. Manure, actually; it goes from being
the waste material of one being to the life-source of
another".
He also made films, paintings, large-format photographs.
His sculptures, a fusion of Abstract Expressionism and
Pop, are what he is most famous for. The artist also
said: "Kline gave me the structure, De Kooning gave me
the color".
John Chamberlain passed away December 21, 2011.
John Chamberlain:
Choice is scheduled to open at the
Guggenheim in New York February 24, 2012 (through
May 13)
|