Circa 1970 | Copper, glass

Sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewelry designer, teacher — Claire Falkenstein was one of America’s most experimental (and with more than 4,000 finished works, most productive) 20th-century abstract artists. Always in the vanguard, she gathered both kudos and controversy. Her fountains, doors, and kinetic sculptures adorn public spaces across the globe. Falkenstein’s extensive “Fusions” series explored the results of marrying metal and glass: solidity and fluidity, brutality and delicacy. This untitled, dynamic piece drapes a structure of arching copper end-cut curves and points with a central pendant mass of clear glass that seems still in the process of melting.