The unique oeuvre of the American sculptor John Chamberlain, a pioneer of Pop Art, cannot be assigned to any particular style. He is always interested in the interplay of volume, structure and color as well as the search for means of expression with which he can break with the traditional concept of sculpture and dissolve the boundaries between form and painting.

In doing so, he draws on elements of Nouveau Réalisme and Abstract Espressionism. For his balanced, compact sculptures, he used unruly materials (such as steel scraps, rubber or Plexiglas), which he powerfully worked and then intuitively assembled. From 1957 onwards, he became known above all for his first use of car body parts in art and for his unusual use of color. In addition to sculpture, he also worked in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and film. Chamberlain was inspired by the sculptures of David Smith and the poets Creeley, Olson and Duncan, among others. The works of Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning also had a lasting influence on him.

Chamberlain grew up in Chicago and initially worked as a hairdresser in the US Navy for a time in the 1940s. From 1950, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago for two years. He began exhibiting his works in 1960. He took part in the So Paolo Biennale in 1961, the Venice Biennale in 1964 and the documenta in Kassel in 1982. He presented his first retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1971. He also received many honors, such as the Skowhehan Medal for sculpture in 1993 and the National Arts Club Artists Award, New York, in 1997. In 1990 he became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letter, New York, and in 2006 of the National Academy of Design, New York. Since the late 1950s, he has worked in New Mexico, Texas, Florida and repeatedly in New York, where he died in 2011.