A boundary-pushing artist who worked on both small and monumental scales, Claire Falkenstein developed a sculptural approach to Abstract Expressionism that took its cue from the raw materiality of industrial objects. This example is constructed from welded metal, wire and bits of colored glass. For the artist, these three materials––and their physical properties of line, transparency and fluidity––recalled broader concepts of infinity and space. This work exemplifies the relationship between movement and stasis: endlessly overlapping wires suggest the continuity of time, while melted glass fixes their implied motion into place. By confining this sculptural interior within a rigid metal box, whose rectangular shape and vertical orientation reference the conventions of painting, Regal Box challenges the traditional definitions of each medium and practice.
Details
- Artist Name: Claire Falkenstein (American, 1908-1997)
- Title: Regal Box
- Date: 20th century
- Medium: Glass and wire in metal box
- Dimensions: 12 x 9 x 3 1/2 in. (30.5 x 22.9 x 8.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick R. Weisman
- Accession Number: P.1967.23.3
- Copyright: © 2011 Claire Falkenstein Foundation
Object Information
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1967-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre
- Norton Simon Museum, 2016-09-02 to 2017-01-16
Radical Past: Contemporary Art and Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974
- Norton Simon Museum, 1999-02-07 to 1999-06-06
- Armory Center for the Arts, 1999-02-07 to 1999-04-11
- Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, Calif.), 1999-02-07 to 1999-04-25
Lost but Found: Assemblage, Collage and Sculpture, 1920-2002
- Norton Simon Museum, 2004-11-05 to 2005-03-28
- Armory Center for the Arts/Art Center College of Design, Radical Past: Contemporary Art & Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974, 1999, p. 34
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