Claire Zeisler was an artist and art collector who helped transform the two-dimensional craft of weaving into the three-dimensional medium called fiber art during the mid-to-late twentieth century. 

At first she created functional loomed weavings, but by 1962, the year of her first solo exhibition, she had abandoned the loom to create three-dimensional free-form fiber sculptures of increasing scale and complexity. These works actively exploited the inherent qualities of weaving and thread, especially in their emphasis on knotting and wrapping and on free-falling unwoven strands of fiber, a device that the artist considered her trademark.

Throughout the late ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, Zeisler exhibited widely, in Europe and Japan as well as the United States, and many museums acquired examples of her work. Today her work is still considered an example of fiber art and sculptural possibilities.

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