John Chamberlain, an irascible character known for imposing sculptures of crushed metal, passed away yesterday at the age of 84. He was indisputably a giant of the field, winning a Lifetime Achievement Award from D.C.'s International Sculpture Center in 1993 and the Distinction in Sculpture Honor from the SculptureCenter in New York in 1999.

It is a measure of Chamberlain's singularity, however, that commentators were unable to decide exactly what genre to put him into. He is remembered both as an Abstract Expressionist — because of the dynamic forms of his works — and as a Pop artist, because of his characteristic use of found objects (in particular car parts), his use of candy-colored paints (a no-no for classic abstract sculpture), and the subtle assembly line character of his process. 

For his part, he didn't much care about precise labels. "I've found that Abstract Expression is really the only one you need," Chamberlain said in an interview with his then-dealer, Pace's Arne Glimcher, when asked about his views on art. "Because it's all abstract. It doesn't matter if its realism — it's still abstract, and it's the guy's expression. It doesn't matter who it is. The person is expressing himself. So it's all abstract expression."

Chamberlain was born in 1927 in Rochester, Indiana, and raised in Chicago. After serving in the Navy, he went on to attend the Art Institute of Chicago before finding a place for his enthusiasms at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in the mid-'50s. He came to New York in 1956, ensconcing himself as part of the scene at the legendary Cedar Tavern, the hangout of the Abstract Expressionists, coming under the influence of idols like Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline.

He found his most fertile influence, however, in the welded constructions of David Smith. By 1957, Chamberlain was incorporating metal from junked automobiles into his sculptures. His first serious solo show was in 1960 at New York's the Martha Jackson Gallery, and after 1962 he showed often at Leo Castelli Gallery. In 1964, he represented the United States at the Venice Biennale, and went on to have hundreds of shows — including one early survey at the Guggenheim in 1970 — returning again and again to tortured and abused metal as his signature theme.

Though he created a successful and enduring formula, Chamberlain was not just a one-trick pony. He was also known for smaller sculptures made of belted foam, forming waffled, bouquet-like shapes. He also experimented with independent film, notoriously with the racy "The Secret Life of Hernando Cortez" (1969), featuring Taylor Mead and Ultra Violet ("this trashy underground film is of no interest to those other than naked-flesh fanatics," wrote one of the cult film's harsher critics). Most recently, the octogenarian had taken to creating a new series of collage-like Photoshop montages, seen this year at Steven Kasher gallery, even as he continued his enduring fascination with crushed metal at his Shelter Island studio. 

A large retrospective of his work had already been in the works for February at the Guggenheim, and will now go on without him.