An idiosyncratic show combining the work of two geniuses who used metal in new if nearly opposite ways needs to be carefully balanced.
Displaying 12 crushed car-body sculptures by the American sculptor John Chamberlain (1927-2011) in and around two prefab structures by the French architect-designer Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) doesn’t quite do the trick.
Astutely reimagined function trumps innovative abstract form. Mr. Chamberlain’s bent and folded metal pieces have a beautiful excess and also brought a new level of abstraction and color to postwar sculpture. But Mr. Prouvé designed and patented methods of folding sheet metal that enabled reusable building elements to be mass produced. His spare structures exalt simplicity, logic, economy and, above all, the ideal of affordable housing.
It doesn’t help that to look their best the Chamberlain works need more space and better lighting than the Prouvé structures allow.
