Untitled

Though he worked in a variety of media, John Chamberlain is best known for abstract sculptures and installations of painted, compressed automotive parts, which he began in the 1950s. Frustrated with misinterpretations of his work as depictions of car wrecks or evocations of violence, Chamberlain departed from his signature motif in 1966. From this point until 1973, he fabricated sculptures almost exclusively from urethane foam. Chamberlain incorporated his distinct style of crushing and wadding as he tied pieces of the foam together with string or cords. Untitled is one of Chamberlain’s early, midsized foam works. Tucked and pulled in all directions, the cut urethane foam is shaped by seemingly invisible cords as it overflows and extends upward and outward. With various curves and bulges, these evocative sculptures are about the material characteristics of foam rubber and what can be done to it: squeezing, cutting, and binding.