John Chamberlain: Papier Paradisio

by Robert Creeley

When John Chamberlain began his career in the late 1950s, his starting point was Abstract Expressionist painting. As has since been remarked, his twisted, lacquered, partially painted, metal sculptures eventually created a new, three-dimensional Abstract Expressionism. This collection of his two-dimensional works from different creative phases brings him back to that starting point and suggests other directions he might have taken--and quietly did take, in sketching--reinforcing both the pictorial character of his work and his unconventional way with materials. Papier Paradisio includes subtle improvised works on paper, small reliefs made in cardboard and metal, spray paintings and Formica.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P. Capen Professor of Poetry and the Humanities at State University of New York at Buffalo, and lived in Waldoboro, Maine, Buffalo, New York and Providence, Rhode Island, where he taught at Brown University. He was a recipient of the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was much beloved as a generous presence in many poets' lives.