Claire Falkenstein

Claire Falkenstein used the term “topology” to describe how she creates art. Topology itself is a term in mathematics when discussing the relations between objects and space, and in a non-mathematical sense it means how things interact with each other. Now, Falkenstein adopted the mathematical term “Topology” to describe how her sculptures are relative to the space around them.[9] Falkenstein not only uses topology in terms of the math around her sculptures but specifically the form of a “u” to create many of her sculptures.

In many of her pieces, one being “U '' as a Set at the California International Sculpture Symposium held at California State University, Long Beach in 1965, she used the form of “u’s” in her pieces to create a larger form of a “u”. “U” as a Set was created much like her other works by using copper pipes, though varying in length and diameter.[10] Tying back to topology, this piece creates a flowing and “airy” response that both interacts with its surroundings and contradicts it. Two years after the symposium, the piece was moved in front of the Macintosh building at California State University, Long Beach, a modernist building made out of brick.[11] The conflicting simplicity of the building and the complexity/fluidity of the sculpture creates a blank red background to assess the work. It also allows for the full effect of the topological style to take form, as you can see the working forces of the all the combined, abstract “u” forms of the copper pipes interact with each other and the air around it to create the feeling of dynamism, and the overall shape of another abstract “u”. Similarly, this technique was used in all 41 pieces of her series Point as a Set, which also uses hollow copper tubes and fragments in the shape of abstract “u’s” to create pieces that suggest movement thus interacting with space around them.[12]

Inside a Lumber Mill (1934), watercolor for the Public Works of Art Project

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.[2]

She taught art classes at various Bay Area locations, such as UC Berkeley Extension, Mills College, and the California Labor School.[7] 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.[8] 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.[13] During the 1930s she created sculptures from clay ribbons formed into Möbius strips, woven together. These were some of the earliest American nonobjective sculptures.[8] Her series of wooden sculptures called Exploded Volumes date from the first half of the 1940s. These were made of movable parts that could be combined in different ways by the viewer.

Falkenstein married Irish-American lawyer Richard Francis McCarthy on July 14, 1934, in Alameda, California.[14] They were married for 22 years. They had known each other in high school; they were divorced because he didn't join her in her desire to live in Paris.[15]

Falkenstein did move to Paris in 1950 and remained for thirteen years,[15] 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.[8]

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."[15] 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,[8] the French counterpart of American Abstract Expressionism.

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.[7] The large, airy forms constructed of this material became part of her famous style.[8]

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.[16] A critic compared Falkenstein's work of the 1950s to "a Jackson Pollock in three dimensions".[17] 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.[18]

In 1954 the Galleria Montenapoleone in Milan held a major solo exhibition of her work, and four years later, she was asked to make the railing of the Galleria Spazio in Rome. On this occasion she inserted pieces of colored glass in an open, grid-like structure of soldered metal.[19]

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.[15][20][21]

Falkenstein was also commissioned to create welded gates for the sea villa of the Princess Luciana Pignatelli.[6]

Falkenstein's jewelry was the subject of her 1961 solo exhibition at the Louvre's Musée des Arts Decoratifs.

By the late 1950s, Falkenstein was back in San Francisco, teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute. Through a student, Helen Burke, she met composer Terry Riley, who produced with Pauline Oliveros and Loren Rush an improvised soundtrack to her short film “Polyester Moon”. The film was already complete visually in 1957, but the musicians were brought in for postproduction in 1958.[22]

In 1963, Falkenstein moved to the Venice district of Los Angeles,[2] building an oceanfront home/studio.[18] Falkenstein received many high-profile commissions for large public art pieces, including sculptures, fountains, and screens.[18] In 1965, she created "U" as a Set for the International Sculpture Symposium held on the campus of California State University, Long Beach and in 1969 she created the doors, gates, and stained-glass windows for St. Basil Catholic Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The three-dimensional windows are considered by some to be her finest achievements.[21][23] She said of the windows: "To my knowledge, they're the only abstract windows for a Catholic church."[15] 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.[21][24]

In 1969, the Los Angeles Times distinguished Claire Falkenstein as "Woman of the Year."[25]

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.[26]

In the 1970s, Claire Falkenstein also created sculptural glass objects in collaboration with the famous glass factory Salviati in Venice.[27]

In 1977, the film: "Claire Falkenstein, Sculptor" was created by Jae Carmichael.[28]

She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Arts in 1978.[29] From about 1990 on, her work was concentrated on painting rather than sculpture.[21] 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.[21]