John Chamberlain

Collection Thordis Moeller, New York
Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Cologne, Heiner Friedrich GmbH, John Chamberlain, 1978
Zürich, Kunsthaus Zürich, Reliefs/Formprobleme zwischen Malerei und Skulptur im 20. Jahrhundert, 1980, p. 242, no. 161, illustrated
Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle, Borofsky, Chamberlain, Dahn, Knoebel, 1983
Eindhoven, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, De Statua, 1983
Madrid, Palacio de Cristal, Parque del Retiro, John Chamberlain/Esculturas, 1984, p. 31, illustrated in colour
Cologne, Galerie Karsten Greve, John Chamberlain, 1989
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Wolfsburg, Art Museum Wolfsburg, John Chamberlain: Sculpture, 1996, p. 22, illustrated
Münster, Museum for Printart, Baby Tycoons - Sculptures by John Chamberlain, 1997

John Chamberlain, 'Journal', Du, no. 11, 1979, p. 83, illustrated
Julie Sylvester, John Chamberlain: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculpture 1954 - 1985, New York 1986, p. 153, no. 561, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals a network of very thin and stable hairline cracks along the highest ridges of the bent metal to the yellow and red pigments, toward the top of the left-most yellow panel. These appear to be original and inherent to the artist's use of found materials. No restoration is apparent under ultraviolet light.
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Executed in powerfully twisted and contorted steel, Full Quartz is a superb example of John Chamberlain’s wall mounted sculptures. Encapsulating Chamberlain’s characteristic utilisation of crushed car parts to masterful effect, Full Quartz exudes an impact of visceral strength, authoritatively dominating the space in which it is placed. Vibrant yellow and vivid red contrast with the gleaming silver of the chromium-plated steel grills, whilst exuberant sweeps of green and pink adorn a section of the curved steel, reflecting Chamberlain’s growing interest in the possibilities of graffiti during this period. Klaus Kertess makes reference to Chamberlain’s renewed interest in colour and painterly elements within the work of the late 1970s following the sculptor’s re-discovery of steel as a medium after a hiatus of seven years: “In the past Chamberlain had occasionally added to or modified the pre-existing colour of a component; now he took the liberty of applying his own paint: multi-coloured splatters and drips, bursting with the euphoria of mark-making” (Klaus Kertess, ‘Colour in the Round and Then Some: John Chamberlain’s Work, 1954-1985,’ in Julie Sylvester, John Chamberlain, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculpture1954-1985, New York 1986, p. 37). Full Quartz stands at the apex of Chamberlain’s investigations into the creation of an entirely innovative artistic language; one that could be viewed as a sculptural equivalent of the physical and strongly textural style of Abstract Expressionist painters such as Willem de Kooning.

Chamberlain first took the radical step of appropriating abandoned car parts for creative use in 1958: on finding an old Ford truck in the garage of a house his family were renting, the sculptor crushed the fenders with his own car then welded the remnants together to form a totally original creation. The automobile sculptures caused a sensation when exhibited in Chamberlain’s first solo show at Martha Jackson Gallery in 1960, arousing diverse critical observations: “Their very physical substance is a commentary about our times, our conspicuous waste, our confused values” (Emily Genauer quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, John Chamberlain, Choices, 2012, p. 195). This concept of the negative aspects of consumerist culture signified by the warped segments of disused car parts - remnants of a desirable commodity, ownership of which connoted a connection to the traditional idea of the ‘American Dream’ - adds another layer of meaning to Chamberlain’s multifaceted and stunningly complex automobile works. The sculptor also took great care over the significance of titles for his pieces: fascinated by the innate sound and appearance of words, his titles frequently featured a memorable conjunction of disparate phrases or words, a practice wittily reflected within Full Quartz.

Although Chamberlain experimented with a variety of media between 1965 and 1972, creating works in Plexiglass, aluminium foil and urethane foam, the sculptor was drawn inexorably back towards using steel car parts as the most important means of fully realising his utterly unique artistic vision. Chamberlain recalled the significance of these ‘found’ steel parts as artistic spurs: “I resumed work with coloured steel when my friend David Budd said I owned that material, and in a way I felt that I did. I was convinced that it was a very good idea for me to go back to it… Nobody else seemed to be using the material, and it had been piling up again in all the body shops” (the artist quoted in: Op. cit., Julie Sylvester, p. 22). On resuming work with steel, Chamberlain continued to develop his utilisation of car parts to ever-increasing technical and stylistic heights, reflecting changes in the manufacture of cars as well as his own ceaseless delight in the potentials of the material. By 1977, the year in which Full Quartz was created, Chamberlain’s steel sculptures had taken on a pronounced vertical emphasis, with the elongation especially prominent within the wall-mounted sculptures: the extraordinary stretching of the elements serves to brilliantly reinforce the inherently dramatic, almost theatrical, impact of the work. Ultimately in its masterful fusion of medium, colour and form, Full Quartz can be regarded as a consummate expression of the sculptor’s 1970s corpus as well as a celebration of a material that Chamberlain had made distinctively his own.