For the decades of Chicago evenings when I was allowed or expected to bring a date, I chose Claire Zeisler as being the most interesting and most fun. It never occurred to me that she was exactly the same age as my mother. Her integration of confident adult and mischievous, sometimes shy child made her a delightful companion.
Others can testify to Claire`s zest for life. Paul Smith, director emeritus of the American Craft Museum, writes: ”Having seen her many times, both in New York and her wonderful apartment overlooking Lake Michigan, it was always a joy to share in her enthusiasm for everything. Her sensitive eye and love of creativity were reflected by her impressive collection of objects and the paintings she owned by Miro and Picasso. These acquisitions, along with her world travels, love of museums and broad range of interests, were an important influence on her work.”
To her friend Mildred Constantine, the curator and writer, ”Claire Zeisler was an adventurer in life and art. Her sculptural work off the loom showed a daring accompanied by a sophistication and commanding presence that astonished and delighted me.”
Claire Zeisler`s work grew immeasurably in importance over the past three decades. If one looks back to the pivotal ”Woven Forms” at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (now the American Craft Musem), a 1963 exhibition that included Lenore Tawney, Sheila Hicks and Dorian Zachai, one can see that the Zeisler works in that show were halting, if poetic and courageous in their departure from all precedents. Although Claire was then new to weaving, those early pieces already expressed a fascination with gravity, a concern which dominated her lifework. The walls of scissor-cut suede manifested such a plunge, as did the towers of red, white and blue cords typical of her last and best work. Freestanding, supported by a concealed armature, these towers-with their great weight-proudly defy gravity while the individual cords collectively give in to it. That the cords are first so neatly wrapped as to become rigid, smooth forms provides contrapuntal relief to the free-falling verticals.
The wrapping techniques she shared with Hicks and others; the repeated free-fall of thousands of cords bears some connection to Tawney`s ”Cloud”
series, but Claire Zeisler`s power and sculptural presence were totally her own. Her art projects a personality firmly independent and compliantly relaxed.
Fortunately, her work is sufficiently durable (and even their photo images so clearly evocative) that Claire is still with us.
