1969-1971
Poster for Films of John Chamberlain.
1969
Chamberlain's written proposals from the late 1960s include various sculptural concepts like Roller Derby, Love Seat, and Love Nest. Some of these ideas reference artists like Donald Judd and Robert Morris. Another proposal called Revolving Doors involves viewers navigating through twelve doors to reach a surprise. He also recalls a concept involving a locked box filled with objects that people must rearrange to escape. These proposals were never realized.
February: John Chamberlain's retrospective exhibition showcased his early sculptures and galvanized steel works. Art critic Peter Schjeldahl praised Chamberlain's work for its distinct physical presence and unique appeal.
Chamberlain's films "The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez" and "Wide Point" premiered at Hunter College in New York in early February 1969.
March 1-April 27: Chamberlain participated in the "Soft Art" exhibition at the New Jersey State Museum, and from March 16 to April 13, he took part in "New Media: New Methods" at The Museum of Modern Art's circulating exhibitions program.
March 16-April 13: Takes part in the exhibition "New Media: New Methods," curated by Kynaston McShine, held at the Roberson Center in Binghamton, New York. The exhibit later travels to various locations including the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey, University of South Florida in Tampa, George Thomas Hunter Gallery in Chattanooga, Krannert Art Museum in Illinois, Dublin Gallery of Art in Knoxville, Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, Memorial Art Gallery in New York, Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, and Edmonton Art Gallery in Canada.
April: Jane Livingston from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art visits Chamberlain in New York, inviting him to join the Art and Technology program, which places artists in residence at corporations.
April-May: Participates in the "Painting and Sculpture Today-1969" exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
May 8: Visits Ampex Corporation in Los Angeles as part of the Art and Technology program to discuss executing his proposed project called "Fortysecond Parallel."
May 9: As part of Art and Technology, visits Riker Laboratories in Los Angeles and proposes an olfactory-stimulus-response environment named "SniFFter," involving a variety of odors. The project does not come to fruition.
July: Begins filming "Thumbsuck" in New Mexico, but the project remains incomplete.
August-September: Spends six weeks at the Rand Corporation through the Art and Technology program, suggesting various unrealized projects and facing challenges in communication.
Chamberlain creates sculptures covered with resin, known as the "Penthouse series," during his stay in a penthouse apartment on East Twenty-Third Street.
October: Holds an exhibition at the Mizuno Gallery in Los Angeles, featuring seven paper-bag sculptures displayed on Plexiglas plinths.
October-November 14: John Chamberlain, along with artists Burgoyne Diller, Mark di Suvero, Myron Stout, exhibits at the Noah Goldowsky Gallery in New York. This is one of the exhibitions organized by Richard Bellamy after the closure of the Green Gallery in 1965. A review by Vito Acconci in Art News in January 1970 describes Chamberlain's wall-piece as resembling a punching bag, inviting viewer interaction and change.
October 6-31: Chamberlain is a visiting artist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He concludes his residency with a slideshow called "Witches and Warlocks," consisting of around nine hundred images of the university's personnel, students, classes, and spontaneous moments, presented using multiple projectors and accompanied by recorded readings of John Cage.
October 18, 1969-February 8, 1970: Participates in the exhibition "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, organized by Henry Geldzahler as part of the museum's centennial celebration.
October 24-December 7: Takes part in the exhibition "An American Report on the Sixties" at the Denver Art Museum.
November: Chamberlain contributes a drawing to a project by artist Forrest Myers, which is miniaturized to fit on a ceramic chip developed by Bell Laboratories. This chip, known as the Moon Museum, is rumored to have been secretly attached to the lunar module during NASA's Apollo 12 mission.
November 7: Continuing his SniFFter project, Chamberlain receives confirmation from International Flavors & Fragrances in New York that they have prepared thirty-one fragrances from his original list, including scents like "French roast coffee," "Lew Alcindor's tennis shoes after a game," and "Brigid Berlin's ink pad." A note indicates that the "Bowery Flop House" fragrance should contain "more urine/degen."
Luna, Luna, Luna (In Memory of Elaine Chamberlain).
1970
January 14-February 25: He participated in "The Highway" exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. The exhibition traveled to different venues, showcasing his work "Silverheels" from 1963.
February 6-March 14: Chamberlain took part in the "American Artists of the 1960s" exhibition at the School of Fine and Applied Arts Gallery, Boston University. His artwork "Lilith New Moon" from 1967 was included.
February 11: He had an exhibition titled "John Chamberlain 'Soft and Hard': Recent Sculpture" at Lo Giudice Gallery in Chicago, showcasing five foam couches and nine white-and-chromium-plated steel sculptures.
May 1-30: The "John Chamberlain: Minneapolis Couches" exhibition took place at Locksley/Shea Gallery in Minneapolis. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding with the adhesive used on the couches, Chamberlain declared them destroyed.
He moved to Los Angeles and lived in Larry Bell's studio on Market Street in Ocean Park.
He began creating sculptures out of Plexiglas boxes, melting them in an industrial oven in East Los Angeles and vacuum-coating them with quartz and aluminum in Larry Bell's studio.
Chamberlain produced a sculpture edition called "Le Molé" with the Gemini G.E.L. workshop in Los Angeles. This edition, published in 1971, consisted of wadded paper bags dripped with resin.
He shared a studio with Neil Williams in Little Sycamore Canyon, California, where he created the Morgansplit paintings on 12-inch-square panels.
July 10-August 30: Participated in the exhibition "Das Ding als Objekt: Europäische Obiektkunst des 20. Jahrhunderts" at Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany, and it later traveled to the Sonja Henie and Niels Onstad Foundation in Norway.
September 13-November 1: Took part in the inaugural exhibition of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, showcasing his work "Coma Berenices-North of Virgo" from 1967.
October 5-6: Participated in the Halifax Conference at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, an international artists' symposium.
December 7, 1970-January 3, 1971: Participated in the "Faculty Artists at UNM 1960-1970" exhibition at the University Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
December 12, 1970-February 7, 1971: His work "Coconino" from 1969 (listed as "Coco Wino") was part of the "Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
“John Chamberlain: A Retrospective Exhibition," in 1971 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
1971
Chamberlain created a series of oil and colored-pencil paintings on paper titled "MAAB," comprising fifty-three works numbered in multiples of nine. The title "MAAB" was also used for a metal sculpture he made that year.
He returned to New York and set up a studio on Wooster Street.
Chamberlain collected damaged stainless steel boxes that Donald Judd had discarded and attempted to work with them to create sculptures. However, he ultimately considered this experiment unsuccessful and abandoned it.
April 17-May 8: Chamberlain held an exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, showcasing mineral-coated Plexiglas sculptures.
He participated in the exhibition "Metamorphose des Dinges: Kunst und Antikunst 1910-1970" at Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, which later traveled to various venues in Europe.
April 26-September 6: He took part in "Younger Abstract Expressionists of the Fifties" at The Museum of Modern Art, showcasing works by nine artists from the collection.
May 14-September 26: He participated in the exhibition "Art and Technology" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where he self-published a limited-edition typescript titled "Rand Piece."
He created the video "Black Cherry No-Cal," featuring Brigid Polk and others, which includes interviews and scenes from Central Park.
November 6-30: Chamberlain's video "Cocaine Blues" was selected for broadcast as part of the Artists and Television Project organized by Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).
December 23, 1971-February 20, 1972: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York organized a retrospective exhibition titled "John Chamberlain: A Retrospective Exhibition," spanning nearly one hundred works from various stages of his career.