Essential Event: Six Decades Of John Chamberlain's Sculptures Loom Large At The Guggenheim

John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation

While you're planning your March museum outings to check out MoMA's Cindy Sherman retrospective or the Whitney Biennial, we highly recommend adding the Guggenheim Museum's John Chamberlain: Choices to your list.

Chamberlain, who died in December at the age of 84, began his career as a sculptor in the mid 1950s, following four years of service in the Navy. He became known for forging sculptures out of automobile parts, which brought Abstract Expressionism into three dimensions and blended elements of Pop Art and Minimalism. "His astonishing, balanced sculptures stressed the deep volumes and eccentric folds that he managed to achieve by squeezing or compressing the metal and then welding the disparate elements into highly developed, collage-like compositions," says the Guggenheim.

Choices, which "pays tribute to the artist's process of active selection, or choosing, that is fundamental to his practice," is installed chronologically in museum, with his long career unfolding along Frank Lloyd Wright's upward spiral. C’ESTZESTY (2011), "a nearly 20-foot-tall work of painted and chromium-plated steel and stainless steel" is also installed along Fifth Avenue.

John Chamberlain: Choices is on display at the Guggenheim through May 13. Hit the jump to see some of the works featured in the exhibition, and as you do, meditate on a couple quotes from Chamberlain:

Kline gave me structure. De Kooning Gave me color. But I only agreed with him because the auto color was the same. It had nothing to do with being derivative. De Kooning knew about the color of America. The color of America is reflected in their automobiles.

One day something—some one thing—pops out at you, and you pick it up, and you take it over, and you put it somewhere else, and it fits. It’s just the right thing at the right moment. You can do the same thing with words or with metal. 

Fantail, 1961 Painted and chromium-plated steel 70 × 75 × 60 inches (178 × 190.5 × 152.4 cm) Collection of Jasper Johns © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Jerry L. Thompson.

SPHINXGRIN TWO, 2010 Aluminium 192 7/8 x 165 3/8 x 145 5/8 inches (490 x 420 x 370 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationUntitled, ca. 1960 Paper, metal, painted and printed tin-plated steel, printed paper fabric, and paint on painted fiberboard 12 × 12 × 5½ inches (30.5 × 30.5 × 14 cm) Private collection Photo: Kristopher McKayC’ESTZESTY, 2011 Painted and stainless steel 238 x 67 x 67 inches (604.5 x 170.2 x 170.2 cm) Private collection Installation view: John Chamberlain: Choices, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, February 24 - May 13, 2012 © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim FoundationShortstop, 1957 Painted and chromium-plated steel and iron 58 × 44 × 18 inches (147.3 × 112 × 45.7 cm) Dia Art Foundation © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: David Heald/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New YorkLord Suckfist, 1989 Painted, chromium-plated, and stainless steel 83 3/4 × 57 × 56 inches (212.7 × 144.8 × 142.2 cm) Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Sammlung Brandhorst © 2011 John Chamberlain / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo: Courtesy The Pace Gallery

-- John Ruscher