The John Chamberlain Estate teamed up with 1stDibs for the release of PARIS RUE, an online sale of works by the late American artist John Chamberlain. With a focus on lesser known aspects of his life and work, the sale features a selection of rare photographs, inks on canvas and a sculpture created during his extensive stays in Paris.
While the artist is best known for his iconic metal sculptures created out of automobile steel, he explored a wide variety of mediums and techniques over the course of his six-decade-long career, staying true to his love for experimentation. Chamberlain began to explore photography in the late 1960s, and in 1977, his close friend and fellow sculptor Larry Bell gifted him a Widelux camera. Prior to his passing in 2011, Chamberlain spent the last decade of his life on the path of artistic innovation as he took an interest in digitally manipulating his images.
His photography and inks on canvas served as an extension of the themes explored in his sculptures. By holding the camera at arm’s length and shooting blindly, the artist was not only able to capture his environment in full panoramic splendor, but harness the spontaneity of each moment captured. What resulted were images, often stretched and distorted by bright streaks of light. A similar sense of compression and expansion are evident in his ink works, which reveal images of himself cut and spliced with various scenes to create a fluid story.
The works of PARIS RUE serve as a window into Chamberlain’s daily life in the French capital, many of which consist of self(ie) portraits shot on the city streets, dining in restaurants or on top of the Eiffel Tower. Bearing the likes of contemporary image-editing techniques, the collection of works is grounded by a sense of familiarity – a reminder of the simple joy of rediscovering the world through the eyes of another.
The sale is now live on 1stDibs’ website.
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