John Chamberlain
'John Chamberlain', c. 1971, gelatin silver photograph
Photographer: Gerard Malanga
Purchased 1973
Born in Indiana in 1927, John Chamberlain studied and taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and Black Mountain College. He had already made a name for himself on the American sculpture scene when he went to work with Kenneth Tyler at Gemini GEL in 1971: his work had been included in the Museum of Modern Art’s The art of assemblage exhibition and he had represented the United States at both the São Paolo and Venice Biennales. At Gemini GEL Chamberlain created the multiple Le molé (The molecule).
The structure of the small sculpture was based on a crumpled paper shopping bag that the artist coated in polyester resin and then cast in the same material. The edition was then aluminium plated and covered in a silicon oxide. The resultant sheen recalls Chamberlain's assemblages made using scrap metal from cars.
Emilie Owens
Works in the Kenneth E. Tyler Collection
Chronology
1927 Born in Rochester, Indiana, United States
1943–46 Serves in US Navy; deployed to the Mediterranean and Pacific
1951–52 Attends the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
1955–56 Studies at Black Mountain College, North Carolina
1957 First solo exhibition, at Wells Street Gallery, Chicago
1959 Included in exhibition, Recent Sculpture USA, at Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1960 Included in exhibition, Annual exhibition, at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1961 Included in Biennial of São-Paulo, Brazil; included in exhibitions: Carnegie International, at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Annual exhibition, at the Art Institute of Chicago
1962 Included in exhibition, Annual exhibition, at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1964 Included in Venice biennale, Italy; included in exhibition, Painting and sculpture of a decade, at Tate Gallery, London, England
1965 Included in exhibition, Annual exhibition, at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1966 Receives John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; included in exhibition, Annual exhibition, at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1967 Returns to New York; included in exhibition, Carnegie International, at Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
1968 Completes film trilogy starring Taylor Mead: Wedding night, The secret life of Hernando Cortez and Wide point; included in exhibition, Annual exhibition, at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1970 Included in exhibitions: New York painting and sculpture 1940–70, at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1971 Solo exhibition, John Chamberlain: a retrospective exhibition, at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; completes edition of the multiple Le molé at Gemini GEL, Los Angeles, California
1972 Included in exhibition, Film-video-photographs-projection, at Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
1973 Included in exhibition, Whitney biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1975 Travelling solo exhibition, John Chamberlain: the Texas pieces, originating at Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; included in exhibition, Sculpture: American directions 1945–75, at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
1976 Included in exhibition, 200 years of American sculpture, at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1977 Receives John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1978 Receives commission for the Federal Plaza in Detroit, Michigan; included in travelling exhibition, Art about art, at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1980 Moves to Sarasota, Florida
1982 Travelling solo exhibition, John Chamberlain: an extended exhibition, organised by DIA Art Foundation, New York; included in exhibition, Documenta 7, Kassel, West Germany
1983 Solo exhibitions: at Art Museum of the Pecos, Marfa, Texas; John Chamberlain reliefs 1960–82, at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; John Chamberlain, sculpture and works on paper, at Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
1984 Receives the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award, Wooster, Massachusetts; solo exhibition, John Chamberlain/esculturas, at Palacio Cristal, Madrid, Spain
1985 Completes residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, Connecticut
1986 Retrospective exhibition, John Chamberlain: sculpture 1954–1985, at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; travelling solo exhibition, John Chamberlain: oils, originating at Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, West Germany
1987 Receives commission for The colored gates of Louisville: The inevitable return of the indefatigable Dr Fahey, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, Louiseville
1991 Travelling retrospective, John Chamberlain, originating at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany
1996 Travelling solo exhibition, John Chamberlain: current work and fond memories, sculptures and photographs 1967–95, originating at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2000 Solo exhibition at Pace Wildenstein, New York
2002 Solo exhibition at Waddington Galleries, London
2005 Solo exhibition at Waddington Galleries, London
2006 Symposium, It's all in the fit: the work of John Chamberlain, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas
2011 John Chamberlain died in New York City.
Kate Buckingham, 2006
This chronology builds upon the excellent biographical information published in the exhibition catalogues John Chamberlain: oils (Munich: Galerie Fred Jahn, c. 1986) and John Chamberlain: recent work (New York: Pace Gallery, c. 1992).
Further Reading
TYLER GRAPHICS PUBLICATIONS
- Workshop: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman (ed.), exhibition catalogue, 2015
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