Are you able to define a work without a theme based on how it looks? The Whitney Museum of American Art, located in New York City’s Meatpacking Industry, was a place with many different forms of art—even the elevators were a piece of art. My Summer TRaC group was toured by a museum educator named Billy who prepared a couple activities for us, such as paper cutting to create different forms and shapes. Afterwards, we were asked to walk around the museum and pick artworks that stood out to us. I thought the pieces were all great but of course some works stood out more than others. To me, many of the pieces were rich with things to interpret, but the one that stood out to me was called White Velvet by John Chamberlain.

“White Velvet” by John Chamberlain, 1962

Chamberlain’s work is very detailed. This piece is open to many interpretations, and as with all art, it is for the viewer to decide what he or she feels about a piece. Personally, I feel this piece is a masterpiece. Chamberlain dismantled and combined two different white cars and welded them together. The result was astonishing. Spectators can see the exhaust pipes, gaskets, and doors. Chamberlain’s choice to the name the piece White Velvet was controversial. Velvet is supposed to soft, but the piece itself is hard aluminum, which contributes to the perception of the piece and adds to the mood created.

The interpretation of the piece is broad and many ideas can be integrated. Chamberlain purposely made the sculpture this way to make people judge his art based on what they experienced and wanted to take from the piece. He walked into his friend’s house and saw the cars. Knowing he had to come up with a piece, he transformed the cars. Some people who saw the pieces saw faces, others saw a pile of junk or a robot, and others assumed it had a bad connotation because of the metals crushed together.

“White Velvet” by John Chamberlain, 1962

After interviewing friends, eighty five percent of them thought the piece was astoundingly beautiful while others didn’t like it because of the complexity. Additionally, others thought the piece suggested violence because of how the vehicles were crushed together. I highly recommended that people take their time to unpack what they see. Also, most people who stood next to the piece needed some type background information or facts about the artist in order to make critiques. The quality may be a little low, but the piece thoroughly left a contemplative atmosphere.

The Whitney is clean, healthy, safe, accessible and teen friendly. For those reasons, I would highly recommend The Whitney to anyone interested in broadening their horizons.