Claire Falkenstein
Untitledc.1955

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

No image

Artist or Maker: Claire Falkenstein
United States, 1908-1997
Title: Untitled
Date Made: c.1955
Medium: Steel, sheet metal, and Venetian glass
Dimensions: 9 1/8 × 14 × 12 1/2 in. (23.18 × 35.56 × 31.75 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Modern and Contemporary Art Council, the Fannie and Alan Leslie Bequest, the Robert H. Halff Endowment, and the Neil Lane-Jacobson Family Foundation.
Accession Number: M.2023.188
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Claire Falkenstein was an artistic polymath. Early in her career, she began using wire and metal rods in her sculptures out of economic necessity but continued to use them even when she was less restricted financially. Falkenstein often referred to her three-dimensional creations as “structures” (rather than “sculptures”), in which she integrated open or negative space to explore what she called “topology”: “a connection between matter and space, incorporating a concept of the continuous void in nature.”

In 1950, Falkenstein moved to Paris, where she became part of the American expatriate artist community. As she later remarked, this period abroad allowed her to “develop [her] own vocabulary.” Untitled is one of the earliest instances in which she integrated molten glass into her freestanding structures, producing a rough but beautiful interplay of light and form.

Carol Eliel and Lauren Hanson

Related Unframed

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

No image

Artist or Maker: Claire Falkenstein
United States, 1908-1997
Title: Untitled
Date Made: c.1955
Medium: Steel, sheet metal, and Venetian glass
Dimensions: 9 1/8 × 14 × 12 1/2 in. (23.18 × 35.56 × 31.75 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Modern and Contemporary Art Council, the Fannie and Alan Leslie Bequest, the Robert H. Halff Endowment, and the Neil Lane-Jacobson Family Foundation.
Accession Number: M.2023.188
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Claire Falkenstein was an artistic polymath. Early in her career, she began using wire and metal rods in her sculptures out of economic necessity but continued to use them even when she was less restricted financially. Falkenstein often referred to her three-dimensional creations as “structures” (rather than “sculptures”), in which she integrated open or negative space to explore what she called “topology”: “a connection between matter and space, incorporating a concept of the continuous void in nature.”

In 1950, Falkenstein moved to Paris, where she became part of the American expatriate artist community. As she later remarked, this period abroad allowed her to “develop [her] own vocabulary.” Untitled is one of the earliest instances in which she integrated molten glass into her freestanding structures, producing a rough but beautiful interplay of light and form.

Carol Eliel and Lauren Hanson