Web Description:
Sculptor and painter Claire Falkenstein (American, 1908 – 1997) produced a diverse body of work in a wide array of materials, such as wood, stone, laminated plastic, Cor-Ten steel, glass, and aluminum. Although she was best known for her thicket-like sculptures of forged metal, she also created paintings, ceramics, and jewelry, and designed glass, furniture, wallpaper, fountains, and architectural elements. Two of Falkenstein’s most important commissions involved glass. In 1962, she completed a pair of bronze, steel, and glass gates that were commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim for her home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in Venice, Italy (now part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation). Her best-known project, however, was her creation of the doors, rectory gates and grills, and the soaring, sculptural stained glass windows for St. Basil’s Church in Los Angeles, which she completed in 1969. Recognized in Venice for her work for Peggy Guggenheim, Falkenstein was invited by the Venetian glass firm Salviati & Cie. to design vases and sculpture in 1972 – 1973, and again in the early 1980s. Falkenstein’s designs for Salviati emphasize the transparency and plasticity of molten glass.
