[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_421":422,"_423":424,"_425":19,"_426":427,"_428":19,"_429":430,"_431":432,"_433":434,"_435":436,"_437":438,"_439":440,"_441":442,"_24":443},"routes/($lang).detail.($maker).($seoName).($auctionCode).$lotOrObjectNumber",{"_9":10,"_11":-5,"_12":13,"_14":15,"_16":17,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23,"_24":25},"lot",{"_274":58,"_323":324,"_91":92,"_325":326,"_327":47,"_276":277,"_279":283,"_328":329,"_330":107,"_331":109,"_332":333,"_196":334,"_60":61,"_335":336,"_281":76,"_337":193,"_338":19,"_339":19,"_340":19,"_341":342,"_343":344,"_345":19,"_138":19,"_139":124,"_346":19,"_347":19,"_348":124,"_131":124,"_349":19,"_119":120,"_350":351,"_352":353,"_354":355,"_356":357,"_358":359,"_360":361,"_362":363,"_364":365,"_366":367,"_368":369,"_93":94,"_148":370,"_137":124},"sanityLotElc","auction",{"_91":92,"_93":94,"_95":96,"_97":49,"_98":99,"_100":101,"_102":103,"_104":105,"_106":107,"_108":109,"_110":111,"_112":113,"_114":113,"_115":116,"_117":118,"_119":120,"_121":19,"_122":19,"_123":124,"_125":19,"_126":19,"_127":19,"_128":124,"_129":19,"_130":19,"_131":124,"_132":19,"_133":124,"_134":19,"_135":19,"_136":19,"_137":124,"_138":19,"_139":124,"_140":141,"_142":143,"_144":145,"_146":147,"_148":149,"_48":150,"_151":152,"_153":154,"_155":156},"messageBanners",[],"title","John Chamberlain - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London Friday, October 13, 2023 at GMT+1 | Phillips","isPreview",false,"COOKIE_DOMAIN","phillips.com","conditionsOfSalePdfLinkConfig",{"_89":90},"metadata",[26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37],{"_16":83},{"_38":87,"_40":88},{"_38":60,"_40":81},{"_38":86,"_40":83},{"_38":85,"_40":81},{"_38":84,"_40":77},{"_78":82,"_40":83},{"_78":80,"_40":81},{"_78":79,"_40":77},{"_50":51},{"_42":43,"_44":45,"_46":47,"_48":49},{"_38":39,"_40":41},"name","apple-itunes-app","content","app-id=397496674","tagName","link","rel","canonical","href","https://www.phillips.com/detail/john-chamberlain/192774","location","London","script:ld+json",{"_52":53,"_54":55,"_38":56,"_57":58,"_59":47,"_60":61,"_62":63,"_64":65,"_66":67},"@context","https://schema.org","@type","Product","John Chamberlain - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale","sku","192774","url","description","Druid’s Cluster (Swish)","image",[77],"brand",{"_54":75,"_38":76},"offers",{"_54":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_59":47},"Offer","price",350000,"priceCurrency","GBP","availability","https://schema.org/SoldOut","Brand","John Chamberlain","https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010723/192774_001.jpg?fit=cover&optimize=medium&width=1302","property","og:image","og:description","Discover John Chamberlain's Druid’s Cluster (Swish) featured in Phillips' 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale Auction in London. Browse, bid, and explore art, design, and luxury at Phillips.","og:title","John Chamberlain 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale","twitter:image","twitter:description","twitter:title","keywords","Phillips Auctioneers LLC, auction, Lot, John Chamberlain, London Auction 13 October 2023","NY080126","https://www.dist.phillips.com/content/web/docs/forms/NY_Conditions_of_Sale_NY080126.pdf","auctionId",1600,"auctionCode","UK010723","auctionName","20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale","auctionLocation","auctionTimezone","Europe/London","auctionStartDateTime","2023-10-13T14:00:00.000000Z","lowestEstimate",20000,"highestEstimate",2800000,"auctionStatus","PAST","saleTypeId","Auction","bannerImage","https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010723/UK010723.jpg?fit=cover&optimize=medium&width=1302","contactEmail","ihallam@phillips.com","conditionRequestEmail","auctionDetails","

Highlights Tour
\n

\n\n

Milan
\n13 - 15 September
\nVia Lanzone 2
\n20123 Milan
\n

\n\n

Paris
\n20 - 24 September
\n46 Rue du Bac
\nParis 75007
\n

\n\n

New York
\n18 - 25 September
\n432 Park Avenue
\nNew York NY 10022
\n
\nAdmission to this sale is by ticket only.
\nPlease email tickets@phillips.com
\n

\n","auctionDetailsSmall","London Auction 13 October 2023","extraInfo","

Rosanna Widén
\nSenior Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
\n+44 20 7318 4060
\nrwiden@phillips.com
\n

\n\n

Olivia Thornton
\nHead of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Europe
\n+44 20 7318 4099
\nothornton@phillips.com

\n","enableHighlightsView","enableOnlineCatalogue","endSale",true,"hideSoldLots","isChineseTranslate","isExhibition","isLiveAuction","isMixedAuction","makeLive","showAdvanceBidButton","showArtCollector","showBuyButton","showCatalogueDownloadLink","showInquireButton","showPrintCatalogueSection","showRegistrationLink","showSaleOffers","showSoldPrice","lots",[234,235,236,237,238,239,240,241,242,243,244,245,246,247,248,249,250,251,252,253,254,255,256,257,258,259,260,261,262,263,264,265,266,267,268,269,270,271,272,273],"viewing",{"_212":213,"_214":215,"_48":216,"_217":218},"articles",[176,177],"departments",[169],"auctionCurrency",{"_166":72,"_167":168},{"_157":158,"_159":160,"_161":162,"_163":49,"_164":165},"totalLotCount",40,"auctionMobilityAuctionRowId","1-7U2HCJ","auctionUrl","https://www.phillips.com/auction/UK010723","countryName","United Kingdom","countryCode","GB","line1","30 Berkeley Square","city","postCode","W1J 6EX","currencyCode","currencySign","£",{"_170":171,"_172":173,"_174":175},"departmentId",1,"departmentName","Contemporary","departmentDisplayName","Modern & Contemporary Art",{"_178":203,"_180":175,"_181":204,"_16":205,"_184":206,"_186":207,"_188":189,"_190":191,"_192":193,"_194":208,"_196":193,"_197":209,"_199":210,"_201":211},{"_178":179,"_180":175,"_181":182,"_16":183,"_184":185,"_186":187,"_188":189,"_190":191,"_192":193,"_194":195,"_196":171,"_197":198,"_199":200,"_201":202},"coverUrl","https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/richter-lead-2bf0a14d-e7ca-4c91-8429-95735915a159_s600x0.jpg","section","summary","Daniel Richter’s innate challenge of authority emerges in ‘Schakal Reloaded.’","Forever Punk","body","

Daniel Richter, Schakal Reloaded, 2009. 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

\n\n

In the divided Germany of the 1980s, a group of outcasts in Hamburg emerged as a creative community united by a shared belief in a socialist future and a disdain for leadership in both the East and West. “In the early ‘80s, late ‘70s when I was young, punk was the way out,” painter Daniel Richter once recalled of his youth. Richter joined this informal group in his early 20s, squatting in abandoned buildings and engaging with the city’s thriving punk scene. The artist spent a decade living in this Hamburg community, satisfying his creative urge by making punk concert posters. He preferred to work alone, not favoring the inherently collaborative nature of music-making, later noting that making imagery “was the natural role the subculture chose for me.”

\n\n

The artist has recounted that this period was not without conflict, as the group often faced public backlash and assaults from the police, as well as violence from neo-Nazi groups. These early encounters added steam to Richter’s already established skepticism of authority, which can be seen throughout his later work.

\n\n

\n
“The idea was not to wait for the communist party, but instead to do it ourselves.”
\n—Daniel Richter
\n

\n\n

When the Berlin Wall fell, Richter’s reality crumbled, and the unification of Germany prompted the painter’s creative expansion into fine art. He remembers that when “the Soviet Union collapsed it was clear to me that there would be shifts of power in the world and that the idea of what a democracy is will be massively changing.” It was at this point, at the age of 30, that the artist realized he needed to find a new path, as many in his orbit had either become bitter with age or died young. It was a struggle for him to make this leap, recalling, “I didn’t have money, I didn’t have wealthy parents, I didn’t have any education, so I was a bum by definition of the State. The only thing that I had always done, and I’d always been obsessed with, was images.”

\n\n

He enrolled at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg to discover what can define art, led by a questioning of the artistic validity of his own posters. Upon graduation he worked as assistant to several artists, most notably Albert Oehlen, as he refined his painterly style, initially emerging on the scene with colorful abstract paintings before shifting to the more figurative and politically charged paintings that are emblematic of his social outlook.

\n\n

A Symbolic Jackal

\n\n

\n\n

Daniel Richter, Schakal Reloaded, 2009. 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

\n\n

Richter’s 2009 work Schakal Reloaded is a striking canvas that reflects the fraught political landscape of the early 2000s and the horrors of the war on terror. In this painting we’re confronted with what at first seems to be an enchanted mountain landscape, the complex narrative concentrated in Richter’s flattened pictorial space. This graphic visual language coupled with the work’s expressive use of color are somewhat reminiscent of graffiti and street art, perhaps relating to the artist’s early experience. On closer look, we discover a jackal figure at the left of the composition, rendered in a hazy orange. Its presence is menacing, and the nearby human figures scream in terror. It is the turbans of these figures coupled with Richter’s visual suggestion of the jackal’s symbolic associations that call to mind the charged political atmosphere of the time, reminding us of the nickname given to the powerful armored vehicles deployed to the Middle East by the United Kingdom. The overtones of the associations in this image can be considered as ascribed to the Western militaries, assigning them the personality of a cunning trickster, indifferent to the plight of others. Poignantly, we realize this scene places us in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the “jackal” vehicle roamed.

\n\n

\n\n

Daniel Richter, Schakal Reloaded (detail), 2009. 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

\n\n

This work is deeply rooted in the events that have defined Richter’s creative life. If the German reunification was the first historical event that shook Richter’s world, the terrorist attacks of September 11th were the second. The two are linked for Richter, as he has noted, “The fall of the Wall and the crumbling of the Soviet Union are the reason for the reappearance of religions and nationalism haunting us today.” By suggesting through charged symbolism that Western militaries are untrustworthy, Schakal Reloaded presents us with the tragic absurdity of such political tensions. The artist has made countless pointed comments on this dynamic in the post-9/11 era. He has remarked of Islamic extremism that “it’s a war for dumb guys believing in lord penis, in guns and violence, and all that kind of paranoid, fascist, megalomanic power scheisse.” In turn, he’s also pointed out that the very same ideals flow through the male leadership of some recent Western administrations and has questioned how the war machine has allowed Western economies to flourish. These ideas represent what perhaps defines Daniel Richter’s thinking — a continuous challenge of authority demonstrated not just by an approach to art and imagery, but to a way of life.

\n\n

Discover More from 20th Century & Contemporary Art >

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

Unreliable Witness: On memory and veracity in ‘Rome’ by Luc Tuymans >

\n\n

\n","publishDate","2023-10-02T15:27:02.000000Z","authorCredit","Jesse Limbacher","coverPosX",50,"coverPosY",0,"articleUrl","https://www.phillips.com/article/132403391/art-auction-london-daniel-richter-forever-punk","displayOrder","auctionEditorialID",1932,"editorialID",4345,"flocklerID",132403391,"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/tuymans-lead-8dc9c8f8-d133-471c-a2a4-6d1175c6d8bb_s600x0.jpg","On memory and veracity in ‘Rome’ by Luc Tuymans.","Unreliable Witness","

Luc Tuymans, Rome, 2007. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

Luc Tuymans’ highly distinctive painting practice navigates the complex ambiguities between history, power, imagery, and memory; probing, in essence, these themes to question the very existence of absolute truth. “There is no truth in the work,” Tuymans asserted of his practice in an interview with Iona Whittaker, noting further and quite obliquely: “I have a high distrust for images, even my own.”

\n\n

Ahead of Phillips’ 20th Century & Contemporary Art auctions in London this October, where Tuymans’ monumental 2007 painting Rome will be offered at auction for the first time, we look to the artist’s work and ideas to explore memory and its relationship to truth, power, and identity.

\n\n

As the fresh-to-market Rome has been on loan since its initial acquisition — first to the Stedejlik Museum in Amsterdam and then to the Kunstmuseum in The Hauge — the occasion presents a rare opportunity to discover the painting, which will be on view at Phillips’ Berkeley Square gallery from 4 October through the auction on 13 October.

\n\n

Critically regarded for his belief in painting at a time when conceptual art circles had declared the practice futile, Tuymans has proved painting to be the only medium appropriate for his investigations into questions of power, memory, and visual representation. Moreover, as many of his contemporaries were moving increasingly into abstraction, Tuymans privileged the figurative, coming to prominence in the early 1990s as a painter of peculiar and affecting images that explored history and its antimonies, the strangeness of routine objects, and the ways in which power, technology, and time impact our vision in an increasingly fraught and rapidly evolving cultural landscape. His work has challenged the supposedly honest relationships between seeing, believing, and remembering, interrogating the forms and functions of images and the ways in which truth and falsehood are codependent entities.

\n\n

A consummate example of Tuymans’ painterly practice, Rome is one of nine canvases that make up Les Revenants — the first in a trilogy of series that confront the image as an instrument of power. First shown in 2007 at Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp, works from the series have gone on to be included in some of Tuymans’ most significant subsequent exhibitions. Only three works from the series have ever appeared at auction.

\n\n

Monumental in scale, Rome is the largest of the nine canvases from the series. Typical of the artist’s practice, the source material of the image was a homemade print of a digitally compressed image. The result is a painting that the writer Hans Theys describes as “reminiscent of illustrations in old textbooks. The reality has the air of a disintegrating cardboard theatre or thousands of scattered, tiny patches of light.” A muted tonal palette and soft, diffused brushstrokes are characteristically employed by Tuymans to present a cinematic image of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The architectural heft of the basilica is conveyed by the sheer scale of the canvas and the spaciousness of the asymmetrical composition. Imposing structural details including massive sculptures and columns combine to present a majestic vision of the building, rendering the assembled enormous congregation almost insignificant before the weight of the occasion. Yet, much of the vital action is seen bottom right, where Belgian Archbishop Daneels is sparsely depicted among a group of candidates for elevation to cardinal. Just a moment after our first sight of this image, the newly elevated cardinals — including Daneels — will kneel.

\n\n

\n\n

Luc Tuymans, Rome (detail), 2007. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

As noted by Theys, the muted tonal palette and Tuymans’ practice of working from manipulated old photographs presents this image as professedly historical. When we realize this image depicts a contemporary ceremony, one of great importance to Belgium, we realize how Tuymans uses imagery to play with our perception of time and memory. The artist has explained his approach, stating, “Art creates its own time span and in that sense also creates its own time lapse: you are looking at something that accords time to an image, as it is made and as it shows itself.” Tuymans’ work challenges our perception of time to pose questions between memory and belief and reveal to us the dangerous reality that memory, and thus our understanding of history, may be fallible. In turn, the work proves that the image is also fallible. As writer Christina Ruiz has remarked, “At the heart of Tuymans’ project is a central conceit: that images are unreliable, that they can offer us no more than a fragment of reality and that our own memories, personal or collective, mislead us.”

\n\n

Tuymans employs a masterful and carefully considered approach to the physicality of paint, tone, and color to impress these ideas. He explained in a 2021 recorded discussion for David Zwirner gallery that he is interested how his work can influence people, to make them stop and think, or to play off their own memories. He shared that this is the principal reason that his works explore tonality rather than simply color, as he has observed that when we perceive imagery monochromatically (even if his paintings are not monochromatic) the images return to our mind at a later point. In this sense, his work not only calls upon our existing memories but plants new ones — it seeks to leave an indelible mark, not simply an impression. “I wanted my paintings to look old from the start, which is important because they are about memory,” the artist has stated.

\n\n

\n\n

Luc Tuymans, Rome, 2007. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

It is understandable why Tuymans so frequently turns to historical imagery to add weight and significance to his canvases. In the case of Rome — its pale muted color scheme appearing almost preternaturally faded — Tuymans calls upon our memories of historic religious imagery. As such, the work doesn’t just showcase the grand and theatrical nature of the religious ceremony, but also reminds us that much of the weight of the tradition and reverence for these spaces lies in the history of the church and, accordingly, the collective memories of its constituents.

\n\n

This notion of a cultural collective memory, understood through history and stories, leads us to consider memory’s impact on identity, as much personal consideration of identity lies in such shared memories, or even in the rebellion against them. In Rome, Tuymans confronts his own identity and background head on, as a Belgian painter who was raised Catholic. The artist explained to Artnet in 2010, “I come out of a country where painting is genetically understood. Highly Catholic because Catholics like images because they keep the people stupid. Western image building was born in that region, and, of course, huge trauma with it.” This wasn’t the first time the artist considered his own background and the history of Belgium in a critical light — at the 2001 Venice Biennale he presented work that explored the colonial brutality of Belgium’s occupation of Congo.

\n\n

Ultimately, in viewing Rome, we are presented with a complex web of associations that functions on us much like memory does. The painting leaves an impression, but we’re forced to connect the visual cues to find understanding in it. The experience is reminiscent of the effort we make in constructing a logical narrative from the memories of our dreams. It also recalls a tenet of Tuymans’ early work, which he described as being “about what history could mean if you dream it, and how inadequate our memory is.” Further ambiguity is lent to the image as it remains almost burned in our inner eyes after viewing, as though we’re still trying to understand the impression it leaves but unable to articulate it. As Tuymans’ himself has offered, “Every visual is in opposition to language because if we could say everything, why make a picture of it?”

\n\n

Discover More from 20th Century & Contemporary Art >

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

Forever Punk: Daniel Richter’s innate challenge of authority emerges in ‘Schakal Reloaded.’ >

\n\n

\n","2023-09-27T00:26:17.000000Z","https://www.phillips.com/article/132084244/art-auction-london-luc-tuymans-unreliable-witness",1928,4336,132084244,"startDateTime","2023-10-03T23:00:00.000000Z","endDateTime","2023-10-12T23:00:00.000000Z",{"_157":158,"_159":160,"_161":162,"_163":49,"_164":165},"hourRanges",[219,220,221],{"_222":232,"_224":233,"_225":226,"_227":231},{"_222":229,"_224":229,"_225":230,"_227":231},{"_222":223,"_224":223,"_225":226,"_227":228},"dayEnd","Tuesday","dayStart","startTime","10:00:00","endTime","20:00:00","Sunday","12:00:00","18:00:00","Saturday","Monday",{"_274":322,"_276":277},{"_274":321,"_276":277},{"_274":320,"_276":277},{"_274":319,"_276":277},{"_274":318,"_276":277},{"_274":317,"_276":277},{"_274":316,"_276":277},{"_274":315,"_276":277},{"_274":314,"_276":277},{"_274":313,"_276":277},{"_274":312,"_276":277},{"_274":311,"_276":277},{"_274":310,"_276":277},{"_274":309,"_276":277},{"_274":308,"_276":277},{"_274":307,"_276":277},{"_274":306,"_276":277},{"_274":305,"_276":277},{"_274":304,"_276":277},{"_274":303,"_276":277},{"_274":302,"_276":277},{"_274":301,"_276":277},{"_274":300,"_276":277},{"_274":299,"_276":277},{"_274":298,"_276":277},{"_274":297,"_276":277},{"_274":296,"_276":277},{"_274":295,"_276":277},{"_274":294,"_276":277},{"_274":293,"_276":277},{"_274":292,"_276":277},{"_274":291,"_276":277},{"_274":290,"_276":277},{"_274":289,"_276":277},{"_274":288,"_276":277},{"_274":287,"_276":277},{"_274":284,"_276":277,"_279":285,"_281":286},{"_274":58,"_276":277,"_279":283,"_281":76},{"_274":278,"_276":277,"_279":280,"_281":282},{"_274":275,"_276":277},"objectNumber","193289","lotType","AuctionLot","184970","lotNumberFull","45","makerName","Damien Hirst","44","190559","43","Rudolf Stingel","190347","188658","192864","192776","182225","193371","188523","193359","192035","176256","191117","193500","188375","192431","188373","192735","188443","190982","187385","188037","193398","192481","189838","187105","186771","189899","189233","193144","182231","192611","193048","192777","190720","193070","192653","192778","lotNumber",44,"estimate",{"_388":389,"_390":391},"detailLink","lotStatus","Sold","parentAuctionStatus","parentAuctionType","auctionMobilityLotRowId","1-82XGBI",2,"makerId",9642,"executedBidCount","currentlyEligibleForBids","priorityBiddingEnabled","reserveMet","startBidAmount",245000,"soldPrice",330200,"isNoReserve","is360View","isNoLot","showSoldLabel","isPremiumLot","dimensions","183 x 140 x 42.5 cm (72 x 55 1/8 x 16 3/4 in.)","medium","painted and chromium-plated steel","sigEdtMan","Executed in 1975.","provenance","Heiner Friedrich, Cologne\r\nAcquired from the above by the present owner in 2011","literature","Noel Frackman, ‘John Chamberlain at Castelli Gallery’, Arts Magazine, vol. 50, no. 10, June 1976, p. 19 (illustrated)\r\nCheryl Glickfield, ed., Chicago Review. Black Mountain and Since: Objectivist Writing in America, vol. 30, no. 3, Winter 1979 (illustrated, cover)\r\nJulie Sylvester, John Chamberlain: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculpture 1954-1985, New York, 1986, no. 514, pp. 143, 237 (illustrated, p. 143)\r\nSusan Davidson, ed., John Chamberlain: Choices, New York, 2012, pp. 210, 212","exhibited","New York, Leo Castelli Gallery, John Chamberlain, 27 March – 17 April 1976\r\nCologne, Heiner Friedrich, John Chamberlain, June - August 1978\r\nNew York, Ayn Foundation, John Chamberlain: Sculpture 1976-1997, September 1997 - October 1999\r\nNew York, Kasmin Gallery, Levity/Density, 11 June – 16 August 2019\r\nNew York, Gagosian, John Chamberlain: Stance, Rhythm, and Tilt, 28 September - 11 December 2021","mainImagePath","https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010723/192774_001.jpg","additionalImagePaths",[387],"estimateSymbols",[386],"enhancedLotComponents",[371],{"_166":72,"_167":168},{"_372":124,"_373":374,"_375":376,"_16":377,"_378":379},"isActive","componentType","RichText","componentId",15859,"DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 11885","componentItems",[380],{"_372":124,"_381":382,"_383":384,"_385":-7},"componentItemId",19564,"htmlCaption","

“It’s taken me a long time, going to different materials and being engaged with different materials. My particular feeling is, as I’ve said, because I like them, I pay attention as to where they’re at. Then whatever I do to them, I can do to them and if it becomes something that hasn’t been done to them before in that usage, then I feel that there’s something there. And I play with that.”
\n—John Chamberlain

\n\n

Although American sculptor John Chamberlain would experiment with a range of non-traditional materials over the course of his five-decade career, the dynamic interplay of crumpled forms and complex spatial arrangements that the artist was able to achieve in his work with crushed automobile parts would come to define his sculptural project. A piece of remarkable grace and power, Druids Cluster (Swish) seems to defy the weight of its materials to float effortlessly against the wall, its gently folded forms holding rhythm and movement in perfect equilibrium. The work comes to auction with exceptional provenance, originally held in the personal collection of art dealer Heiner Friedrich - co-founder of the Dia Foundation in Beacon and the Lone Star Foundation, which merged in 1980 to form the esteemed Dia Art Foundation in collaboration with Philippa de Menil.

\n\n

Seen in Steel

\n\n

Whilst the artist had used colour in his sculptural works before 1976, it was only when returning to this distinctive material in the mid-1970s that he started to supplement the inherent coloration of his found metal with his own painted additions. A close reader of Abstract Expressionism and a firm friend of Willem De Kooning and Franz Kline, in Druids Cluster (Swish) Chamberlain augments his ground with splashes of bold colour and assertive line, creating expressive striations that flex against the sculpture’s more contingent forms. Building up layers of vibrant yet delicate skeins of colour that seem to fall lightly on the sculpted contours of warped metal the piece is animated with its own, lively personality, the chromatic depth and gestural combinations of drips and splashes achieved by the artist here working within the conceptual frameworks of Abstract Expressionism to bring Jackson Pollock’s immersive ‘all-over canvases’ into three dimensions.

\n\n

\"\" — Jackson Pollock, *Convergence*, 1952, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. Image: Buffalo AKG Art Museum/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence, Artwork: © Pollock-Krasner Foundation ARS, NY and DACS, London 2023

\n\n

Despite its graceful contours, Druids Cluster (Swish) still possesses a crunching muscularity, the suggestion of violence held in its twisted contortions and more jagged edges alleviated by the all-over harmonies achieved by the artist’s interventions. This compositional balance lends the work its more organic, intensely naturalistic quality, endowing it with a sense of structural coherence. Chamberlain has referred to this unexpected but seamless interlocking of his sculptural pieces as the ‘fit’, where one attains ‘a certain sense of control’ over the object, a process that is both idiosyncratic and non-formulaic.ⁱ In Druids Cluster (Swish) automobile parts curl and coil like knotted roots, the greens and blues of the painted metal softening the harsh edges of the material and hinting at the central paradox of Nature as combining both creation and destruction, life and death.

\n\n

Drawing us close to this line between creation and destruction, Druids Cluster (Swish) draws not only on the gestural immediacy of Abstract Expressionism, but also on Pop Art’s interest in the industrially reproduced and the objects of everyday consumer life. Andy Warhol’s famous and forensic dissection of traffic road accidents in his Death and Disaster series stands as a particular touchstone here, the two artists sharing a formal fascination for the crumpled metal, as well its capacity for commentary on mid-century America’s commodity culture, and the repurposing of these consumer products into the objet d’art.

\n\n

\"\" — Andy Warhol, *Orange Car Crash (Orange Disaster) (5 Death 11 Times I Orange)*, 1963, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Turin. Image: Bridgeman Images, Artwork: © 2023 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by DACS, London

\n\n

Chamberlain’s compulsion to integrate the everyday, the real, into the work of art and the process itself is analogue to the work of contemporary European nouveau réalistes artists - whose own links to the American Pop Art movement were evident in 1962’s International Exhibition of the New Realists at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York. However, whilst the nouveau réalistes were still indebted to the legacy of Marcel Duchamp and the Readymade, and often overtly entrenched in old struggles against both bourgeois and socialist realist figurative painting and sculpture, Chamberlain’s work is of a uniquely American perspective and character. Druids Cluster (Swish) seeks not to critique American industrial society, but to recognise its potentiality, the possibility that scrap metal and waste by-products might be repurposed into a uniquely American aesthetic practice.

\n\n

That both Chamberlain and Warhol chose the automobile - the symbol sine qua non of post-war America – as both the material and the object of their work respectively speaks to the centrality of their artistic investigations in any history of post-war art as it developed in the United States. Chamberlain’s own contribution is twofold, bringing the lessons of post-war American abstraction into the material realm of the familiar and everyday, and his translation of the gestural exuberance of their mark-making into the spatial dimensions of sculpture. Druids Cluster (Swish) encapsulates all of these tendencies, a writhing and powerful testament to both delicacy and brutality - a monument to the muscular power of an America then at the vanguard of creative expression.

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

\n\t
Internationally renowned for his twisted metal sculptures and experiments with other industrial materials, examples of John Chamberlain’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Collection in London.
\n\t
\n\t
Over the years major retrospectives of Chamberlain’s work across a range of media including photography, film, sculpture, and painting have been held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Since his death in 2011, Chamberlain has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, the most recent of which – John Chamberlain: Five Decades held at Mnuchin Gallery in New York – gave new insight into the development of the artist’s distinctive and diverse practice.
\n\t

\n\n

ⁱ John Chamberlain, quoted in Phyllis Tuchman, ‘An Interview with John Chamberlain’, Artforum, February 1972, vol. 10, no. 6, online.

\n","imageUrl","‡","https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010723/192774_002.jpg","mainEstimate",{"_166":72,"_399":168,"_401":420,"_403":70},"otherEstimates",[392,393,394,395,396,397],{"_166":72,"_399":168,"_401":420,"_403":70},{"_166":417,"_399":417,"_401":418,"_403":419},{"_166":413,"_399":414,"_401":415,"_403":416},{"_166":409,"_399":410,"_401":411,"_403":412},{"_166":405,"_399":406,"_401":407,"_403":408},{"_166":398,"_399":400,"_401":402,"_403":404},"HKD","currencySymbol","HK$","highEstimate",4300000,"lowEstimate",3350000,"SGD","S$",751000,584000,"USD","$",549000,427000,"EUR","€",520000,405000,"CHF",501000,390000,450000,"ENV",{"_727":728,"_729":730,"_731":732,"_733":734,"_735":736,"_737":738,"_739":740,"_741":742,"_743":744,"_20":21,"_745":-7,"_746":747,"_748":749,"_750":124,"_751":747,"_752":124,"_753":19,"_754":755,"_756":757,"_758":124,"_759":760,"_761":762,"_763":764,"_765":757,"_766":767},"locale","en","sanityPreview","messageBannerData","","hideSiteFurniture","upcomingAuctions",[505,506,507,508,509,510,511,512,513,514],"flagHash","d7559c8ecea7786139fb961b20bd7bce57b2c5455466ce33a9c05ab7ec37deeb","serverKey","46a280d7-972b-49bb-aa32-4d36ffa0ade4","priorityBiddingConfig",{"_494":495,"_496":497,"_498":499,"_500":124},"soldPriceConfig",{"_485":343,"_486":487,"_488":487,"_489":490,"_491":490,"_492":343,"_493":343},"imagePathConfig",{"_480":481,"_482":481,"_483":481,"_484":481},"globalJsonLd",{"_52":53,"_447":448},[444,445],{"_42":43,"_44":45,"_46":47},{"_38":39,"_40":446},"app-id=6742061430","@graph",[449,450],{"_52":53,"_54":468,"_469":470,"_38":471,"_59":467,"_472":473,"_474":475},{"_52":53,"_54":451,"_452":453},"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement",[454,455,456,457],{"_54":458,"_459":171,"_38":466,"_461":467},{"_54":458,"_459":334,"_38":464,"_461":465},{"_54":458,"_459":462,"_38":76,"_461":463},{"_54":458,"_459":460,"_38":58,"_461":47},"ListItem","position",4,"item",3,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/john-chamberlain","Detail","https://www.phillips.com/detail","Home","https://www.phillips.com","Organization","@id","https://www.phillips.com/#organization","Phillips","foundingDate","1796","sameAs",[476,477,478,479],"https://www.instagram.com/phillipsauction/","https://www.linkedin.com/company/phillips/","https://www.facebook.com/phillipsauction/","https://x.com/phillipsauction","highlightsSource","fastly","lotImagesSource","saleBannersSource","ELCsSource","plpLotCard","saleroomBidStream","hammerPrice","saleroomResultsRail","accountBids","hammerPricePlusBP","accountFavorites","pdpBidForm","pdpDetailsRail","floorAmount","priority-activated","priorityBidColors",{"_501":502,"_503":504},"uiMode","priority","enabled","activated","#00CC3A","default","#6F4EEA",{"_93":716,"_91":717,"_95":718,"_97":553,"_106":709,"_98":555,"_155":719,"_100":720,"_523":721,"_146":722,"_128":19,"_110":723,"_137":124},{"_93":706,"_91":707,"_95":708,"_97":553,"_106":709,"_98":555,"_155":710,"_100":711,"_523":712,"_146":713,"_128":19,"_110":714,"_137":124},{"_93":690,"_91":691,"_95":692,"_97":49,"_106":519,"_98":99,"_155":693,"_100":694,"_146":695,"_128":124,"_110":696,"_137":124,"_142":697,"_48":698},{"_93":663,"_91":664,"_95":665,"_97":608,"_106":519,"_98":609,"_155":666,"_100":667,"_523":668,"_146":669,"_128":124,"_110":670,"_137":124,"_142":671,"_528":672,"_48":673},{"_93":632,"_91":633,"_95":634,"_97":608,"_106":519,"_98":609,"_155":635,"_100":636,"_146":637,"_128":124,"_110":638,"_137":124,"_142":639,"_528":640,"_48":641},{"_93":605,"_91":606,"_95":607,"_97":608,"_106":554,"_98":609,"_155":610,"_100":611,"_523":612,"_146":613,"_128":19,"_110":614,"_137":124,"_142":615},{"_93":590,"_91":591,"_95":592,"_97":553,"_106":554,"_98":555,"_155":593,"_100":594,"_146":595,"_128":124,"_110":596,"_137":124,"_142":597,"_48":598},{"_93":576,"_91":577,"_95":578,"_97":553,"_106":554,"_98":555,"_155":579,"_100":580,"_146":581,"_128":124,"_110":582,"_137":124,"_142":583,"_48":584},{"_93":550,"_91":551,"_95":552,"_97":553,"_106":554,"_98":555,"_155":556,"_100":557,"_146":558,"_128":124,"_110":559,"_137":124,"_142":560,"_48":561},{"_93":515,"_91":516,"_95":517,"_97":518,"_106":519,"_98":520,"_155":521,"_100":522,"_523":524,"_146":525,"_128":124,"_110":526,"_137":124,"_142":527,"_528":529,"_48":530},"HK080426",1984,"The Hong Kong Watch Auction: XXIII","Hong Kong","READY","Asia/Hong_Kong","https://www.phillips.com/auction/HK080426","2026-11-21T03:00:00.000000Z","auctionEndDateTime","2026-11-22T10:00:00.000000Z",[547],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/HK080426/HK080426.jpg",{"_212":541,"_214":542,"_48":543,"_217":544},"sessions",[538,539],{"_157":518,"_159":531,"_161":532,"_533":534,"_535":536,"_163":537},"HK","G/F, WKCDA Tower","line2","West Kowloon Cultural District","line3","No. 8 Austin Road West","Kowloon",{"_212":522},{"_212":540},"2026-11-22T03:00:00.000000Z","2026-11-15T16:00:00.000000Z","2026-11-21T16:00:00.000000Z",{"_157":518,"_159":531,"_161":532,"_533":534,"_535":536,"_163":537},[545],{"_222":229,"_224":233,"_225":226,"_227":546},"19:00:00",{"_170":548,"_172":549,"_174":549},12,"Watches","NY011626",2090,"Modern & Contemporary Art: Afternoon Session","New York","HIGHLIGHTS_ONLY","America/New_York","https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY011626","2026-11-20T19:00:00.000000Z",[575],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/NY011626/NY011626.jpg",{"_212":568,"_214":569,"_48":570,"_217":571},{"_157":562,"_159":563,"_161":564,"_163":553,"_164":565,"_566":567},"United States","US","432 Park Avenue","10022","province","NY","2026-11-07T05:00:00.000000Z","2026-11-19T05:00:00.000000Z",{"_157":562,"_159":563,"_161":564,"_163":553,"_164":565,"_566":567},[572,573],{"_222":232,"_224":233,"_225":226,"_227":574},{"_222":229,"_224":229,"_225":230,"_227":574},"17:00:00",{"_170":171,"_172":173,"_174":175},"NY011526",2021,"Modern & Contemporary Art: Morning Session","https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY011526","2026-11-20T15:00:00.000000Z",[589],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/NY011526/NY011526.jpg",{"_212":568,"_214":569,"_48":585,"_217":586},{"_157":562,"_159":563,"_161":564,"_163":553,"_164":565,"_566":567},{"_157":562,"_159":563,"_161":564,"_163":553,"_164":565,"_566":567},[587,588],{"_222":232,"_224":233,"_225":226,"_227":574},{"_222":229,"_224":229,"_225":230,"_227":574},{"_170":171,"_172":173,"_174":175},"NY010726",2043,"Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale","https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY010726","2026-11-18T22:00:00.000000Z",[604],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/NY010726/NY010726.jpg",{"_212":568,"_214":599,"_48":600,"_217":601},{"_157":562,"_159":563,"_161":564,"_163":553,"_164":565,"_566":567},"2026-11-18T05:00:00.000000Z",{"_157":562,"_159":563,"_161":564,"_163":553,"_164":565,"_566":567},[602,603],{"_222":232,"_224":233,"_225":226,"_227":574},{"_222":229,"_224":229,"_225":230,"_227":574},{"_170":171,"_172":173,"_174":175},"CH060326",2088,"Geneva Jewels: Online Auction","Geneva","Europe/Zurich","https://www.phillips.com/auction/CH060326","2026-11-04T09:00:00.000000Z","2026-11-12T13:00:00.000000Z",[626,627],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/CH060326/CH060326.jpg",{"_212":616,"_214":617,"_217":618},"2026-11-03T23:00:00.000000Z","2026-11-11T23:00:00.000000Z",[619,620,621],{"_222":624,"_224":625,"_225":226,"_227":546},{"_222":229,"_224":232,"_225":622,"_227":546},{"_222":233,"_224":233,"_225":622,"_227":623},"09:00:00","13:00:00","Friday","Wednesday",{"_170":460,"_172":630,"_174":631},{"_170":628,"_172":629,"_174":629},24,"Online","Jewelry","Jewels","CH060426",2089,"The Geneva Jewels Auction: VII","https://www.phillips.com/auction/CH060426","2026-11-09T14:00:00.000000Z",[662],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/CH060426/CH060426.jpg",{"_212":616,"_214":656,"_48":657,"_217":658},[647,648],{"_157":642,"_159":643,"_161":644,"_533":645,"_163":608,"_164":646},"Switzerland","CH","Hôtel Président","Quai Wilson 47","1201",{"_212":636,"_650":654,"_652":655},{"_212":649,"_650":651,"_652":653},"2026-11-09T15:00:00.000000Z","lotNumberStart","330","lotNumberEnd","426","301","329","2026-11-08T23:00:00.000000Z",{"_157":642,"_159":643,"_161":644,"_533":645,"_163":608,"_164":646},[659,660,661],{"_222":624,"_224":625,"_225":226,"_227":546},{"_222":229,"_224":232,"_225":622,"_227":546},{"_222":233,"_224":233,"_225":622,"_227":230},{"_170":460,"_172":630,"_174":631},"CH080426",1988,"The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV","https://www.phillips.com/auction/CH080426","2026-11-07T13:00:00.000000Z","2026-11-08T19:00:00.000000Z",[689],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/CH080426/CH080426.jpg",{"_212":616,"_214":683,"_48":684,"_217":685},[676,677],{"_157":642,"_159":643,"_161":674,"_533":645,"_163":608,"_164":675},"Hotel President Wilson","1211",{"_212":667,"_650":681,"_652":682},{"_212":678,"_650":679,"_652":680},"2026-11-08T13:00:00.000000Z","108","221","1","107","2026-11-07T23:00:00.000000Z",{"_157":642,"_159":643,"_161":674,"_533":645,"_163":608,"_164":675},[686,687,688],{"_222":624,"_224":625,"_225":226,"_227":546},{"_222":232,"_224":232,"_225":622,"_227":546},{"_222":229,"_224":229,"_225":622,"_227":623},{"_170":548,"_172":549,"_174":549},"UK050226",2019,"Design","https://www.phillips.com/auction/UK050226","2026-11-04T14:00:00.000000Z",[705],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/UK050226/UK050226.jpg",{"_212":699,"_214":700,"_48":701,"_217":702},{"_157":158,"_159":160,"_161":162,"_163":49,"_164":165},"2026-10-29T00:00:00.000000Z","2026-11-04T00:00:00.000000Z",{"_157":158,"_159":160,"_161":162,"_163":49,"_164":165},[703,704],{"_222":232,"_224":233,"_225":226,"_227":231},{"_222":229,"_224":229,"_225":230,"_227":231},{"_170":462,"_172":692,"_174":692},"NY011726",2107,"Rema Hort Mann Fund 30th Anniversary Auction: Launching Artists Living With Cancer Grant","LIVE","https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY011726","2026-10-19T16:00:00.000000Z","2026-10-29T02:00:00.000000Z",[715],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/NY011726/NY011726.jpg",{"_170":171,"_172":173,"_174":175},"NY031026",2098,"Editions & Works on Paper: No Reserve Online Auction","https://www.phillips.com/auction/NY031026","2026-10-20T16:00:00.000000Z","2026-10-28T16:00:00.000000Z",[724],"https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1/auctions/NY031026/NY031026.jpg",{"_170":725,"_172":726,"_174":726},5,"Editions","MODE","production","websocketConfig",{"_59":780,"_781":782,"_783":784},"authConfig",{"_775":776,"_777":778,"_779":728},"ONE_TRUST_SCRIPT_ID","da236391-c57c-40f8-a671-294df558fa4c","GLOBAL_CDN_URL","https://www.dist.phillips.com/content/web/","GLOBAL_ASSET_URL","https://www.dist.phillips.com/static-assets/","THEOPLAYER_LICENSE_KEY","sZP7IYe6T6P60ohoIDC_3OzzTufcFSar0oB-CDIlImkeISbzTDaiCLbcIQB6FOPlUY3zWokgbgjNIOf9flRr3DCLCo0cFSeZIS5-3u1e3mk63uI1FS0iISI60Kht3u5rIOfVfK4_bQgZCYxNWoryIQXzImf90Sb_3SeZ3u5i0u5i0Oi6Io4pIYP1UQgqWgjeCYxgflEc3LhZ0lhc3uCt3uRrFOPeWok1dDrLYtA1Ioh6TgV6v6fVfKcqCoXVdQjLUOfVfGxEIDjiWQXrIYfpCoj-fgzVfKxqWDXNWG3ybojkbK3gflNWf6E6FOPVWo31WQ1qbta6FOPzdQ4qbQc1sD4ZFK3qWmPUFOPLIQ-LflNWfK1zWDikfgzVfG3gWKxydDkibK4LbogqW6f9UwPkImi6IK41Uw4ZIY06Tg-Uya","DOLBY_STREAMING_ACCOUNT_ID","BYwFZf","LAUNCHDARKLY_CLIENT_SIDE_ID","68aefc0f2547850ac0505b8d","POLLING_INTERVAL","FETCH_TIMEOUT",5000,"WS_REFRESH_JITTER_MAX_MS",2000,"ENABLE_SLOW_BROWSER_PERFORMANCE_PROBE","SLOW_TELEMETRY_THRESHOLD_MS","ENABLE_BROWSER_DOCUMENT_LOAD_TRACING","BROWSER_DOCUMENT_LOAD_IGNORE_NETWORK_EVENTS","BROWSER_DOCUMENT_LOAD_RESOURCE_SPANS","slow","BROWSER_LONG_TASK_MIN_DURATION_MS",100,"ENABLE_BROWSER_ROUTE_TRANSITION_TRACING","CORALOGIX_APP_PUBKEY","cxtp_ZonPe8vXSpl7Sbn2e9lrxdxOLJQFof","CORALOGIX_SEND_YOUR_DATA_API_KEY","cxtp_j2JgJ8zS2kCYRwUSWE5ZsBnzIMxbrj","OTEL_SERVICE_NAME","remix","CORALOGIX_SESSION_SAMPLE_RATE","sanityConfig",{"_768":769,"_770":728,"_771":772,"_773":774},"projectId","o6wj5zo6","dataset","apiVersion","2025-03-09","studioUrl","http://localhost:3334","authClientId","76af4ad3-83f1-485c-9242-9621d986dd70","authSyncContext","customer","authEnv","ws.phillips.com","apiKey","YNg99gZHWH8V2TK41OyvHaH9lbSyo0WF14DooTlH","heartbeatInterval",300]

44

John Chamberlain

Druid’s Cluster (Swish)

Further Details

Full-Cataloguing

John Chamberlain