John Chamberlain’s work has always struck me as gimmicky.  He became famous in the 1960’s for making sculptures out of old car bodies, sculptures which seemed, at the time, perfectly in sync with movements in found art, process art and pop art.  As years passed his work has come to feel decidedly minor.

But at a survey exhibit at the Paula Cooper Gallery in Chelsea his pieces seem, in their assured composition and assertive figural presence, almost classical.  There aren’t any of the iconic crumpled-balls-of-fenders here.  Instead there are large, freestanding sculptures, which have a bearish spirit.  There are smaller objects resting on pedestals, like heads.  And there are assemblies hung off the walls, which look like flayed skins.  In the immense, bright gallery, the sculptures feel more substantial, and more vital, than they ever have.