John Chamberlain

John Angus Chamberlain is an American visual artist born April 16, 1927 in Rochester, Indiana, who died December 21, 2011. His work is characterised by the use of crushed and welded automobile fragments. It became famous in the 1960s as an attempt to transpose abstract expressionism into three dimensions, sometimes as a component of pop art.

John Chamberlain has always challenged any idea of social criticism in his use of automobile bodies, symbols of American consumer society. He claims that he uses car sheets only for their formal interest, and says he works without a predetermined plan, letting the material express itself.

Chamberlain uses the relatively malleable nature of sheet metal to bend and crease it. The coloured surface of the metal is reminiscent of paint without being quite like it.

His work has been compared to that of the French sculptor César, yet very different, César working on car bodies with a crusher to make compressions.