Multi-coloured matte steel pieces and shiny chrome elements pile up to form a sculpture over six feet high and with great physical presence in Chamberlain’s work, The Big One. The artist crushed, deformed, twisted, welded, and pressed together the hard, uneven, and crude individual pieces of scrap car to create the sculpture. Contrast is of great significance in the rich interplay of form and colour within the work: darkness and light, matte against shining silver, untreated metal against the painted surface. Curved colour forms merge with rainbow stripes and gestural applications of colour such as spattered paint and brushstrokes. Chamberlain succeeded in creating a sculptural interpretation of the aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism.
John Chamberlain (1927–2011)
The Big One, 1992
Currently exhibited: Yes (2nd floor)
Material: Steel, painted and chromed
Size: 210.8 x 121.9 x 94 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_431
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Keywords:
Previous owner: Artist owned; private collection; Pace Gallery, New York; The Suzanne Geiss Company, New York
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Christie’s, New York, 2018
Solo exhibitions:
2005
‘John Chamberlain; Without Fear’, Waddington Galleries, London, UK
2001
‘John Chamberlain: Sculpture’, Waddington Galleries, London, UK
2000
‘John Chamberlain: recent sculpture’, Pace Gallery, New York, USA
1999
‘John Chamberlain: Painted Steel Sculpture’, Lever House, New York, USA
Group exhibition:
2001
‘Chamberlain and Ed Moses’, L. A. Louver, Venice, Italy
Multi-coloured matte steel pieces and shiny chrome elements pile up to form a sculpture over six feet high with great physical presence in Chamberlain’s work, The Big One. The artist crushed, deformed, twisted, welded, and pressed together the hard, uneven, and crude individual pieces of scrap car. The materials in his works come from painted, chromed, and stainless metal forms that shaped the iconic image of the American automobile in the 20th century. Contrast is of great significance in the rich interplay of form and colour within the work: darkness and light, matte against shining silver, untreated metal against the painted surface. Colourful industrial forms merge with the artist’s own splashes of colour and brushstrokes. Chamberlain managed to create a sculptural interpretation of the aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism and, in doing so, he encouraged and spread the use of colour in sculpture which had previously been the sole preserve of painters of his generation. Chamberlain’s use of found and discarded objects is comparable to the collage of newspaper clippings in the work of Willem de Kooning, for example, and affirms the visual potential of American culture and the everyday world. The works are also a practical response to artists’ poverty. Chamberlain’s art combines elements of Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism, and Minimalism.
