{"data":{"id":"377","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":377,"topgoose_id":15544,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":377,"title":"Velvet White","display_artist_text":"John Chamberlain","display_date":"1962","accession_number":"70.1579a-b","dimensions":"Overall: 81 1/2 × 54 1/2 × 61 in. (207 × 138.4 × 154.9 cm)","medium":"Painted and chromium-plated steel","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Gift of the Albert A. List Family","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eJohn Chamberlain, \u003cem\u003eVelvet White\u003c/em\u003e, 1962. Painted and chromium-plated steel, overall: 81 1/2 × 54 1/2 × 61 in. (207 × 138.4 × 154.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Albert A. List Family 70.1579a-b. ©John Chamberlain/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eVelvet White\u003c/i\u003e, John Chamberlain created a dynamic sculpture out of crushed automobile metal, which he assembled by fitting two already-compressed pieces of metal together, one on top of the other. Despite the violence suggested by wrecked or junked cars, he manipulated the material as carefully as one might crumple or crush a bolt of the softest fabric. As a symbol of the automotive industry, a leader in America’s post-World War II economic boom, the salvaged metal also alludes to the cycle of production and disposal that helped fuel the newly developed consumer culture of the 1950s and 1960s. Chamberlain’s particular interest is the nature of the sculptural object, especially its three-dimensional presence and potential for varying profiles. By maintaining the irregularity of the crushed metal he found, he forces the viewer to walk around the jagged, voluminous form of \u003ci\u003eVelvet White\u003c/i\u003e to experience it in full.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Tall crushed white metal sculpture with folded, dented panels standing against a plain gray background.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:27:00.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:08.685-05:00","images":[{"id":91955,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/377/70_1579a-b_vw1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"247","type":"artist"}]}}}}