Claire Falkenstein’s (1908-1997) work, with its innovative use of materials such as glass, metal and resin, reveals a prescient fascination with the possibilities of chance and choice which parallels current views of our expanding universe. Her ability to move sculpture to non-traditional realms, whereby she incorporates and suggests both the expansiveness of form as well as the compression of space, has established her as one of the most important modern artists in this medium. Falkenstein is well-known as the creator of Peggy Guggenheim’s Venice palazzo gates.

Falkenstein’s first solo museum exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1940 was followed by her works being shown at such prestigious museums as the Louvre and the Rodin Museums of Paris. When she moved to Paris for 13 years in 1950, her studio became a central meeting place for admiring critics and artists. Her works were shown at The Tate Gallery in London, Whitney Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Venice, National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Armand Hammer Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.