Unexpectedly offset by their formal landscaped surroundings, four of John Chamberlain's towering, twisted aluminium sculptures in glittering shades of pink, bronze and green are currently dotted around the grounds of Inverleith House at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as part of the the late American artist's first show in the UK.
A key figure in the New York art scene during the 1950s and 60s, Chamberlain (1927 - 2011) was often overshadowed by his American abstract expressionist contemporaries yet his work continues to exert a powerful influence on artists working today. Although renowned for his welded sculptures of discarded car parts, Chamberlain was a self-described collagist who worked with a broad range of media including urethane foam, paper bags, plexiglas, galvanised or stainless steel.
It is this breadth and diversity of his oeuvre that the exhibition at Inverleith House seeks to highlight. While the ground floor is given over to his colourful crushed car sculptures - displayed on plinths, casually leant against or elevated on the walls- upstairs, the artist's Stuffed Dog sculptures - squidgy pieces of urethane foam tied together with cord and spattered with painted marks - are part of a set of 19 sculptures on loan from the Dia Art Foundation in New York which have never before been exhibited outside of North America.
In the darkly lit basement, Chamberlain's 1969 experimental film 'The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez', featuring Chamberlain himself alongside a number of Warhol superstars such as Ultra Violet and Taylor Mead, also makes its UK debut.
Showcased inside and within the grounds of Inverleith House, the new exhibtion documents six deades of Chamberlain's work. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
Chamberlain's work represents a unique link between the vivid colour palettes and frenetic energy of Abstract Expressionist painting and the truthfulness to material found in Minimalist sculpture. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
Chamberlain was a key figure in the New York art scene of the 1950s and ‘60s. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
On display on the ground floor, are the artist's popular welded sculptures made from discarded car parts. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
The pieces are displayed on plinths, casually leant against or elevated on the walls. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
Although renowned for his welded sculptures of discarded car parts, Chamberlain was a self-described collagist who worked with a broad range of media including urethane foam, paper bags, plexiglas, galvanised or stainless steel. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
The artist's Stuffed Dog sculptures - squidgy pieces of urethane foam tied together with cord and spattered with painted marks have never before been exhibited outside of North America. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
The Stuffed Dog sculptures are part of a set of 19 pieces on loan from the Dia Art Foundation in New York. John Chamberlain, installation view, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. © 2015 Fairweather & Fairweather Ltd/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York
ADDRESS
Arboretum Place, Edinburgh EH3 5NZ
-
Like a modernist iceberg, this Krakow house has a perfectly chiselled façadeA Krakow house by Polish architecture studio UCEES unites brutalist materialities with modernist form
-
Leo Costelloe turns the kitchen into a site of fantasy and uneaseFor Frieze week, Costelloe transforms everyday domesticity into something intimate, surreal and faintly haunted at The Shop at Sadie Coles
-
Can surrealism be erotic? Yes if women can reclaim their power, says a London exhibition‘Unveiled Desires: Fetish & The Erotic in Surrealism, 1924–Today’ at London’s Richard Saltoun gallery examines the role of desire in the avant-garde movement
-
Riccardo Dalisi’s first UK retrospective opens at east London gallery Spazio LeoneSpazio Leone draws together six decades of the Italian visionary’s work, from whimsical coffee pots to radical community workshops
-
Inside the fight to keep an iconic Barbara Hepworth sculpture in the UK‘Sculpture with Colour’ captures a pivotal moment in Hepworth’s career. When it was sold to an overseas buyer, UK institutions launched a campaign to keep it in the country
-
Thirty-five years after its creation, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s seminal video is as poignant as everLynn Hershman Leeson’s 'Desire Inc', at 243 Luz in Margate, blurs the boundaries between art and reality
-
A bespoke 40m mixed-media dragon is the centrepiece of Glastonbury’s new chill-out areaNew for 2025 is Dragon's Tail – a space to offer some calm within Glastonbury’s late-night area with artwork by Edgar Phillips at its heart
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life storiesThe artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
See the fruits of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely's creative and romantic union at Hauser & Wirth SomersetAn intimate exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset explores three decades of a creative partnership
-
Caroline Walker's new show speaks to women everywhere, including me'Everything related to my life with young children, because it's such an all encompassing experience,' the artist says of her new show at the Hepworth Wakefield
-
Cassi Namoda is rethinking stained-glass windows at Turner Contemporary in MargateThe artist drew from an eclectic range of references when considering the traditional medium for a Turner Contemporary window overlooking the beach – she tells us more
