Gagosian New York, along with with Galerie Patrick Seguin in Paris, just opened a dual show worthy of a museum with works by American artist John Chamberlain and French architect and designer Jean Prouvé. These two twentieth century innovators have used metal to a new potential in their respective fields –art and design. Large- and small-scale sculptures by Chamberlain are juxtaposed with two prefabricated houses and key architectural models by Prouvé.
“Every time I turn around I see more openings for the material to do something else.” –John Chamberlain
Chamberlain began to create his “crushed” metal sculptures from industrial detritus during the late 1950s. Again and again he returned to metal car components such as bumpers and hoods, which he dubbed “art supplies” fusing them into multi-colored compositions.
“It seemed to me that sheet steel offered unlimited possibilities: cut up, then bent, rolled, and welded, it let you create all the profiles you needed for specific purposes, from straight lines to angles to curves.” –Jean Prouvé
Prouvé is widely acknowledged as one of the twentieth century’s most influential industrial designers creating furniture for the home, office, and classroom —as well as prefab houses, building components and façades—for more than six decades. He applied industrial principles used in the making of furniture to his architecture of the postwar reconstruction and vice versa.
This dazzlingly installed show pairs these two giants of the 20th century in obvious and unexpected ways within Gagosian‘s huge West 24th Street space. The exhibit runs through April 4. See it if you can.
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