The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Sculpture of welded scraps of metal with chipped cream, red, blue, and yellow paint twisted into a jagged cylinder. At the top right, a cream colored V-shaped scrap of metal juts out like angular bunny ears.

Untitled

c. 1958–59

John Chamberlain

(American, 1927–2011)
America
painted and welded metal
Overall: 82.4 x 67.3 x 61 cm (32 7/16 x 26 1/2 x 24 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1973.27
© Fairweather & Fairweather LTD / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: 227 Abstract Expressionism

Did You Know?

Chamberlain once quipped, “I think of my art materials not as junk, but as garbage.”

Description

Throughout his career, Chamberlain was fascinated by the radical notion that consumer waste could be reconstituted into art. Most often he made sculpture by variously bending, twisting, crushing, and welding pieces of discarded car parts. Through both their junkyard material and atypical methods of construction, these works upended traditional sculpture created from carved marble or cast bronze.
  • (Allan Stone Galleries, Inc.)
  • Henning, Edward B. “An Important Sculpture by John Chamberlain.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 8 (October 1973): 242–246. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 242-243, fig. 1 www.jstor.org
    “The Year in Review for 1973.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31–78. Mentioned: p. 77, no. 141 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 251 archive.org
  • Albert Oehlen: Woods Near Oehle. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 4, 2016-March 12, 2017).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, “Albert Oehlen: Woods near Oehle” (12/4/2016-3/12/2017)
    CMA@MOCA (rotation 2). Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 25-May 13, 2007).
    Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art (1/25/2007 - 5/13/2007): "CMA@MOCA"
    CMA 1974: "Year in Review 1973," CMA Bulletin LXI (February, 1974), no. 141, p. 77, reproduced p. 57
    Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=John Chamberlain|year=c. 1958–59|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1973.27