Xavier Fourcade, Inc., New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1986

New York, Marian Goodman Gallery, Sculpture, June - July 1985

Julie Sylvester, ed., John Chamberlain: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculpture 1954-1985, New York, 1986, cat. no. 767, p. 209, illustrated in color

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. There is extensive wear to the elements including abrasions, oxidation and bending of the metal, all of which appears inherent to the artist's working method. All elements are stable and secure.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The sculpture of John Chamberlain has come to be recognized as a quintessential component of the canon of 20^th century sculpture and American art. His ability to transform the found object, in this case the discarded scraps of crushed car parts, into arresting assemblages paid homage to and manifested in three-dimensions the physicality of paint and brushstroke in the two-dimensional works of the Abstract Expressionists. By working with pre-fabricated materials that come loaded with their own extant connotations in the mind and eye of both the viewer and the artist, Chamberlain manufactured his art in many ways as a novelist or poet does his literature.  Just as the words are assembled and arranged in a body of text to create a new reality of literary form, so too did Chamberlain rearrange the distressed steel to create new sensuous forms in the round.

The current work, Good Friday (An Afternoon Well Spent), functions differently than many of Chamberlain’s other works in that it is neither free standing nor mounted on the wall but rather relies on the wall for support thereby engaging both the space of the viewer and the space of the building in which it resides.  The sensuous curves of white bracketing the much more angular central dark form, seem to suggest billowing drapery enveloping the leaning form of a model posed.  Chamberlain's work assumes a compelling presence, or "stance," as he puts it.  He has said, "The definition of sculpture for me is stance and attitude. All sculpture takes a stance. If it dances on one foot, or, even if it dances while sitting down, it has light-on-its feet stance." (Chamberlain in Exh. Cat., New York, L&M Arts, Inc., John Chamberlain: Early Years, 2009, p. 73). 

The juxtaposition of hard-edged steel with the voluptuousness which Chamberlain is able to coax from it immediately engages the viewer’s space and “evoke[s] the muscular action and seductive attraction of the body…reflect[ing] the mind’s effort to accommodate its own turbulent contradictions.”  (Ken Johnson, "Art in Review, Willem de Kooning and John Chamberlain – ‘Influence and Transformation’" New York Times, October 19, 2001)  Poetic and wonderfully deep, the intricacies of Chamberlain's sculpture con𒐪tinue to unfold with extended meditation and reflection.