NEW YORK, NY.- Hauser & Wirth is hosting an exhibition of work by John Chamberlain, featuring a selection of small-scale sculptures from the artist’s Baby Tycoons series. Baby Tycoons is one of several series of miniature works that punctuates the grandeur and formalism of Chamberlain’s larger sculptural pursuits. Alongside earlier small-scale series, the Baby Tycoons articulate the instinctually playful spirit with which Chamberlain approached material and process at every scale. Masterfully manipulated from automobile scrapmetals, the Baby Tycoons possess all the complexity and power of their larger counterparts. As Chamberlain himself remarked, ‘If the scale is dealt with then the size has nothing to do with it.’

The Baby Tycoons have not been the subject of a dedicated exhibition in over fifteen years. In 1988, Chamberlain fashioned what would become the first of these works from the bountiful scrap material that collected in his studio. This initial effort led to a remarkable series of sculptures defined by their jewel-like scale, abounding color, and the fineness of the metal elements from which they are comprised. BEAUNEHEAD (1995), HER SUITE HAPPINESS (2004), and EROTIC ESKIMO (2006) communicate a distinct playfulness and elegance in their artistic equilibrium – a perfect ‘fit’ as the artist called it. Chamberlain continued to make these energetic miniatures throughout his lifetime.

In advance of Hauser & Wirth’s major New York exhibition in 2020 dedicated to Chamberlain’s prolific oeuvre, this intimate presentation of Baby Tycoons features sculptures from the Estate’s collection as well as loans from important private collections. This marks Hauser & Wirth’s first New York presentation of the artist’s work since announcing the exclusive worldwide representation of the John Chamberlain Estate in May 2019.

John Chamberlain (1927 – 2011) was a quintessentially American artist, channeling the innovative power of the postwar years into a relentlessly inventive practice spanning six decades. He first achieved renown for sculptures made in the late 1950s through 1960s from automobile parts – these were path-breaking works that effectively transformed the gestural energy of Abstract Expressionist painting into three dimensions. Ranging in scale from miniature to monumental, Chamberlain’s compositions of twisted, crushed, and forged metal also bridged the divide between Process Art and Minimalism, drawing tenets of both into a new kinship. These singular works established him as one of the first American artists to determine color as a natural component of abstract sculpture. From the late 1960s until the end of his life, Chamberlain harnessed the expressive potential of an astonishing array of materials, which varied from Plexiglas, resin, and paint, to foam, aluminum foil, and paper bags.

After spending three years in the United States Navy during World War II, Chamberlain enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago and Black Mountain College, where he developed the critical underpinnings of his work. Chamberlain lived and worked in many parts of the United States, moving between New York City, Long Island, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Connecticut, and Sarasota, before finally settling on Shelter Island. In many ways, each location provoked a distinct material sensibility, often defined by the availability of that material or the limitations of physical space. In New York City, Chamberlain pulled scrap metal and twelve-inch acoustic tiles from the ceiling of his studio apartment. He chose urethane in Los Angeles in 1965 (a material he had been considering for many years), and film in Mexico in 1968. He eventually returned to metal in 1972, and, in Sarasota, he expanded the scale of his works to make his iconic Gondolas (1981 – 1982). The movement of the artist and the subsequent evolution of the work is indicative not only of a kind of American restlessness but also of Chamberlain’s own personal evolution: he sometimes described his use of automobile materials as sculptural self-portraits, infused with balance and rhythm characteristic of the artist himself.