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Claire Falkenstein

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Claire Falkenstein
Portrait of Claire Falkenstein, with one of her wooden sculptures, ca. 1936
Claire Falkenstein, ca. 1936
NationalityAmerican
Known forSculpture, painting
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, 1978

Claire Falkenstein (July 22, 1908 – October 23, 1997) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewelry designer, and teacher, most renowned for her often large-scale abstract metal and glass public sculptures.

Early life and education

Claire Falkenstein was born on July 22, 1908, in Coos Bay, Oregon.[1] Her first twelve years were spent living amid the natural beauty of the Oregon coast; her mature works reflect this organic influence. Her father managed a lumber mill and her mother provided an environment conducive to artistic expression. Claire attended high school in the Oakland-Berkeley, California area after her family moved there.[2]

She attended the University of California at Berkeley without initially intending to study art. However, by her junior year it became clear to her that art was her passion. She graduated in 1930 with a major in art and minors in anthropology and philosophy.[3] She had her first one-woman exhibition, at a San Francisco gallery, even before graduation.[4] Her art education continued in the early 1930s at Mills College, where she took a master class with Alexander Archipenko, and met Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and György Kepes.[1]

Life and work

San Francisco

Falkenstein's experience with those artists reinforced her interest in abstraction, as well as ideas that functional considerations do not detract from a work's aesthetic appeal, and that she was free to experiment with a wide variety of new techniques and materials.[1]

She taught art classes at various Bay Area locations, such as UC Berkeley Extension, Mills College, and the California Labor School.[3] She also taught at the innovative California School of Fine Arts, alongside abstract expressionists such as Clyfford Still, who would become a close friend and artistic influence, and Richard Diebenkorn.[4] In 1934, she created an abstract fresco at Oakland's Piedmont High School. This was part of the Federal Art Project, which strongly preferred paintings depicting American scenes, but some abstracts such as this work by Falkenstein were tolerated.[5] During the 1930s she created sculptures from clay ribbons formed into Möbius strips, woven together. These were some of the earliest American nonobjective sculptures.[4]

She was married for twenty-two years to Irish-American trial lawyer Richard McCarthy, whom she had known in high school; they were divorced because he didn't join her in her desire to live in Paris.[6]

Paris

Falkenstein did move to Paris in 1950 and remained for thirteen years,[6] maintaining a studio on the Left Bank. In Paris she met many artists, including Jean Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Sam Francis and Paul Jenkins, as well as art connoisseur Michel Tapié who acted as a sort of mentor and promoter for the Americans.[4]

In a 1995 interview, she said that "Paris was a remarkable experience, because the French allowed a kind of individual action. They have the quality of centuries of ... culture and of art and it sort of spills over."[6] She explored what she referred to as "topology", a connection between matter and space, incorporating a concept of the continuous void in nature. She became associated with the free-form abstractions of L'Art Informel.[4]

Out of economic necessity, Falkenstein inventively used inexpensive nontraditional materials for her artwork, including wooden logs, stovepipe wire, and lead bars. She used stovepipe wire, in particular, in innovative ways, and continued to do so even after she was able to afford other materials.[3] The large, airy forms constructed of this material became part of her famous style.[4]

Rather than sculpture, she preferred the use of the word structure to refer to her work. She applied the term to her paintings and prints as well.[7] A critic compared Falkenstein's work of the 1950s to "a Jackson Pollock in three dimensions".[8] Some of her work has a structure which appears as if it could grow, infinitely expanding, similar to the way Pollock's paintings may appear as if they could continue beyond the canvas.[9]

One of her most well-known pieces is The New Gates of Paradise, constructed of metal webbing with chunks of glass. Located on the Grand Canal at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy, it had been commissioned in 1960 by her friend Peggy Guggenheim. The gates, each of which was 12 by 4 feet (3.7 m × 1.2 m), marked the first time she created a never-ending screen with repeating modules attached in various directions, giving the impression that it could continue forever.[6][10][11]

Los Angeles

In 1963, Falkenstein moved to the Venice district of Los Angeles,[1] building an oceanfront home/studio.[9] Falkenstein received many high-profile commissions for large public art pieces, including sculptures, fountains, and screens.[9] She created the doors, gates, and stained-glass windows for St. Basil Catholic Church in Los Angeles. These 1969 pieces are considered by some to be her finest achievements.[11][12] She said of the windows: "To my knowledge, they're the only abstract windows for a Catholic church."[6] Among the other southern California venues featuring her works are Fresno's Fulton Mall, South Coast Plaza, the Department of Motor Vehicles in downtown Los Angeles, and various college campuses including California State University, Fullerton (she described her sculpture there as "metallic joy – an activity of forces"), California State University, Dominguez Hills, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and California State University, Long Beach.[11][13]

The Long Beach Museum of Art named its restaurant "Claire's at the Museum" in honor of Falkenstein. The artist created Structure and Flow, a fountain with twisting latticework, which was donated to the museum in 1972. This work of art, the restaurant's centerpiece, is another creation which many consider to be among her finest.[14]

She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Arts in 1978.[15] From about 1990 on, her work was concentrated on painting rather than sculpture.[11] Falkenstein died at her Venice home on October 23, 1997 of stomach cancer, at the age of 89. Over the course of her long career as an artist she had produced over 4,000 sculptures, paintings and drawings.[11]

Exhibitions

A small selection of Falkenstein's exhibitions:[16][17]

Collections

Falkenstein's work is in many museum collections, including:[16][18][19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Smith, Roberta (November 9, 1997). "Claire Falkenstein, 89, Sculptor Of the Abstract and Functional". The New York Times. p. 43. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  2. ^ Larinde, Noreen (Spring - Summer, 1980). "Claire Falkenstein". Woman's Art Journal. 1 (1). Woman's Art, Inc.: 50–55. Retrieved February 25, 2011. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Henderson, p. 11
  4. ^ a b c d e f Rubinstein, p. 315
  5. ^ Rubinstein, p. 262
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Oral history interview with Claire Falkenstein". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. March 2 and 21, 1995. Interview conducted by Paul Karlstrom. Retrieved February 25, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution" ignored (help)
  7. ^ Henderson, p. 9
  8. ^ Plante, Michael (Winter, 1994). "Sculpture's Autre: Falkenstein's Direct Metal Sculpture and the Art Autre Aesthetic". Art Journal. 53 (4). College Art Association: 66–72. Retrieved February 25, 2011. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b c Rubinstein, p. 316
  10. ^ Rubinstein, pp. 315-316
  11. ^ a b c d e f Oliver, Myrna (October 25, 1997). "Claire Falkenstein; Prolific and Innovative Sculptor". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  12. ^ "Description and Pictures of Church" (PDF). St. Basil Catholic Church. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  13. ^ "Biography for Claire McCarthy Falkenstein". Ask Art. Incorporates material from, among other sources, American Women Artists by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein and Artists in California, 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  14. ^ "Claire's at the Museum". Long Beach Museum of Art. 2009. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  15. ^ "Guggenheim Fellows Search". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  16. ^ a b "Claire Falkenstein - Biography". ArtFacts. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  17. ^ "Claire Falkenstein". artnet. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  18. ^ "Fine Art Museums for Claire McCarthy Falkenstein". Ask art. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  19. ^ "Claire Falkenstein Online". Artcyclopedia. Retrieved February 25, 2011.

Sources

  • Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer (1982). American Women Artists: from Early Indian Times to the Present. New York, N.Y: Avon. ISBN 0-8161-8535-2.

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