John Chamberlain

Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist)
Private Collection (by descent from the above)
Christie's, Los Angeles, December 14, 1999, lot 259
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling resulting in some minor paint loss along the edges, most noticeably at the edge of the protruding orange element at the back. There is horizontal, stable craquelure to the violet element which has led to some paint loss. There are scattered, light surface abrasions and some dust has settled in the crevices. The colors are all bright and fresh.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

John Chamberlain is best known as an icon of 20th Century American sculpture who redefined the notions of modeling, casting and volume. He brought to life a combination of organic concepts of composition, a focus on the incorporation of large-scale painterly shapes and aggressive manipulations of raw materials that resulted in visually stunning three-dimensional artworks directly descendant from the visual idioms embraced by Abstract Expressionist artists Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. Chamberlain’s talent lies in creating formally challenging sculptures from the long discarded detritus of American consumerism, automobiles, into raggedly amorphous artworks that viscerally incorporate the act of destruction as a pre-requisite to the act of creation.

By the early 1960s Chamberlain had become a regular at junkyards and body shops. Sometimes he actually worked in junkyards, but more often he chose and collected pieces to pile up in his studio. Individual components were selected for their color and roundness, sometimes to be cut up and reshaped, in the studio, and occasionally even to be touched up or painted over with fresh auto lacquer. Chamberlain began to assemble some of these worked pieces into a configuration that maximized the volumes and the colors into a unique presence and attitude. Seeking what he regularly refers to as “fit” or “sexual fit,” Chamberlain joined piece to piece, forming a puzzle whose final shape would not be known until it was completed. Almost all of the car-part sculptures are self-supporting – the pieces hold together without welding – but are spot-welded after completion, so that they could be easily transported and maintained outside of the studio. Chamberlain had an intuitive sense that sheet steel gives about the same amount of resistance as the human body does, and he has acted upon the metal accordingly. Just as his process joins chance and intuition with the prefabricated and the ready-made, it also unites the industrial and the organic. 

The present lot was created in 1964 – a time when Chamberlain’s practice grew extensively.  In 1964, he gained international recognition from being included in an exhibition at Ileana Sonnabend Gallery in Paris, participating in the Venice Biennale, and having been featured on the façade of Philip Johnson’s building at the World’s Fair. This particular work is comprised of an amalgamation of delicately crushed up car parts and scrap metal which have been doused in hard, shiny colors and fused together to create a voluminous tension that is seamless in energy but not in surface. The composition is formed by chance, a randomly compatible fit of individually created components. These casual junctions allow for multiple viewpoints that give way to various interpretations of the work’s formal definition. Chamberlain’s sculpture, with its fractured and convoluted volumes, is completely three dimensional. There is no front or back, no favored view inclining toward the static or planar. The viewer’s eye is taken on an alluring trip over a rolling and cascading topography. Photographs of two different views of one work quite often seem to be two completely different sculptures. Fusing spontaneity, destruction and chance, Chamberlain uses the car as both medium and tool to create this uniquely vertical object with figurative qualities including outstretched “arms” and possible facial features.

This particular structure is smallest at the base and grows in scale with each of the four layers distinguished by color. The navy blue bottom appears square and smaller, followed by a lighter teal more vertical component. The top two tiers are wider – consisting of a bronzed layer topped by a black spider-like upper area. Executed in powerfully twisted and contorted steel, Untitled exudes an impact of visceral strength, authoritatively dominating the space in which it is placed. The colors are automatically integrated into the work to give clear visual evidence of each part’s interaction with the others.