John Chamberlain, BURNTPIANO, around 2007, (c) VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2016, photo Franz Kimmel
Recently, the Chamberlain collection of the DASMAXIMUM Foundation has grown. BURNTPIANO" was installed in the area in front of the Chamberlain Hall. The sculpture, which is over three meters high, dates from the last years of the life of the American sculptor John Chamberlain (1927 - 2011). Together with Andy Warhol, he is one of the most important founders of Pop Art and his works were part of the Venice Biennale in 1964 and Documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982. Extensive exhibitions, most recently in 2011 at the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, and in 2012 at the Guggenheim Museum New York, attest to the topicality of his work.
From bulky, mostly lacquered sheet metal marked by signs of use, he folded and composed shapes of lively expressiveness. The works exhibited in the museum DASMAXIMUM range from the restrained colored ones from 1969 to the predominantly in strong primary colors of the early 80s. Bulky old sheet metal blends into seemingly playfully light compositions that, inspired by poetic and humorous titles such as "Lorelei's Passion" or "Grandma's Hat," evoke figurative or representational ideas.
In addition to sculptures made of sheet metal and foam, such as the large sofa "Wiley's Islands" at DASMAXIMUM, Chamberlain also created small models made of aluminum foil, which he was not able to realize in large format made of sheet aluminum until the last years of his life. One of the first of this kind is the sculpture BURNTPIANO, created around 2009. It changes its character as one walks around it and presents itself to visitors as an intricate knot or a sweeping instrument, depending on the viewer's perspective. Its dancing dynamics and pop colorfulness connect it with other works of this group of works, as they - apart from in Traunreut - recently enliven prominent places in New York, Miami and currently in front of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum.