JOHN CHAMBERLAIN (1927 - 2011, AMERICAN)
Untitled.

Steel, 1954. 229x200x760 mm; 9x8x3 inches.

Provenance: gifted by the artist to Joel Oppenheimer and Rena Oppenheimer (later Rena Rosequist.) 1956; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.

Published: Julie Sylvester, "John Chamberlain: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Sculpture 1954-1985", 1986, page 44, number 3 (illustrated).

According to Sylvester, this sculpture was made by Chamberlain (1927-2011) very early in his career in Chicago; it is his first sculpture made from steel rods.

Rena Rosequist (born Rena Furlong, 1931-2019) was born in Hickory, North Carolina and attended the Women's College of the University of North Carolina, where she was exposed to the work of young modern artists, like Jackson Pollock (1912-1956). After graduation, she attended the progressive Black Mountain College and continued her studies in art and art history. During her time at Black Mountain College, Rosequist met her first husband, poet Joel Oppenheimer (1930-1988), who attended until 1953. By 1955, Chamberlain (1927-2011) had followed friend and fellow artist, Gerry van de Wiele (born 1932) from the Art Institute of Chicago to Black Mountain College, where Chamberlain would meet Rosequist (Chamberlain attended Black Mountain College from 1955 to 1956). Eventually Oppenheimer, Rosequist, and Chamberlain migrated to New York, and though Oppenheimer and Rosequist divorced by 1960, Rosequist and the itinerant Chamberlain kept in touch. Rosequist moved to Taos, New Mexico and operated the Mission Gallery with her second husband Ivan Rosquist (d. 1985) from 1962 until shortly before her death in 2019.