Whitmore Wash

John Chamberlain began making sculpture from metal pipes in the early 1950s, under the influence of the artist David Smith (1906-1965). In 1957, he discovered the artistic possibilities of using scrap parts from automobiles. Two years later, he was working almost exclusively in an assemblage method, experimenting with a wide variety of industrial mediums, such as melted plexiglas or crushed metal. Chamberlain used these elements to create crumpled and twisted sculptures, often evocative of the original objects his materials once served.