Les Lalanne
29 NOVEMBER 2018 - 15 FEBRUARY 2019 AT BEN BROWN FINE ARTS
“They are not furniture, they are not sculpture – call them ‘Lalannes’.” - Claude Lalanne “The supreme art is the art of living.” - François-Xavier Lalanne
Les Lalanne, choreographed by interior designer Manfredi della Gherardesca, brings together over over 60 works by Claude and the late François-Xavier Lalanne, offering a panorama of their artistic output from the 1960s to the present. Claude Lalanne (née Dupeux) studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts and the École des Arts Décoratifs, before meeting François-Xavier Lalanne at his first gallery show. She and her husband François-Xavier began collaborating in the early 1950s, going on to exhibit under their collective signature “Les Lalanne”, receiving early commissions from Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. Their early days together were marked by interactions with the thriving community of avant-garde artists in Montparnasse, not least François-Xavier’s early neighbour Constantin Brancusi who inspired his transition from painting to sculpture. Les Lalanne befriended Dali, Ernst, Man Ray, Duchamp, Niki de Saint Phalle and James Metcalf, who helped Claude perfect the art of electroplating.
“Les Lalanne” on view at Ben Brown Fine Arts Photograph: ©The London List
While distinct in their styles, with François-Xavier’s witty, bold and majestic animal sculptures, offering a gravity of form and functional ingenuity that redefine their original representation, in contrast to Claude’s sinuous and ethereal flora and fauna, evocative of the Art Nouveau movement, they similarly found inspiration in nature, creating a world of fantasy, in many ways, defying categorisation: at once surrealist, classical, contemporary, fine art, decorative art, functional design and whimsical objets. Les Lalanne shared the feeling that sculpture, and more generally artwork - too long sacralised - should be part of the everyday. Even François Xavier’s famous sheep sculptures, first introduced in 1965 at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in Paris, are intended to be used as furniture. “I thought that it would be funny to invade that big living room with a flock of sheep,” François-Xavier once explained. “It is, after all, easier to have a sculpture in an apartment than to have a real sheep. And, it’s even better if you can sit on it.” Several were commissioned by Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, the couturier wistfully observed, “[They help me] pretend I am on a farm in Normandy.”
Their first exhibition at Galerie J. in Paris in 1964, where they presented a series of fantastical and surreal sculptures (a life size rhino that folded into a desk, a watch hidden inside an onion and a cabbage resting on chicken's feet), was judged harshly by the art world. “The critics completely ignored us; for them, making sculptures which had a use was a complete nonsense,” said Claude Lalanne in 2013. Only recently has the work of Les Lalanne achieved iconic status, propelled by the 2009 Christie’s Paris sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s collection and a major retrospective at Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in 2010, curated by an ardent collector and admirer, Peter Marino. Their cult-like following has grown exponentially and now includes private collectors and luminaries from around the world such as Tom Ford, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, François Pinault and Bernard Arnault.
François-Xavier’s Singe Avisé (Grand) (2005), Oiseau de Nuit (2004), and Claude’s Petit Lapin Chouchou (2018) Photograph: ©The London List
For Les Lalanne, Ben Brown Fine Arts has transformed the gallery space into a fantastical tea party-like setting, overflowing with surrealist associations, characteristic wit and inspiration from the natural world. Les Lalanne creates a world of fantasy, reflecting the artist’s delicate attempts at bringing nature into the home – visitors are invited to tea in a surreal room of Claude’s foliage-framed bronze and copper mirrors, surrounded by whimsical Lalanne-inspired wallpapers, her delicate Chaise Feuilles Bambou (2009/2017) and Chaise aux Branchettes, (1996/2010) mounted on the walls, beckoning viewers to take their seats.
Ornate works by Claude include a rarely exhibited series of body molds created in 1975, which echo Yves Saint-Laurent's commission for his 1969 autumn-winter collection. Other works by Claude - Choupatte (2014-2015) and Petit Lapin Debout à Collerette (2017) - take a seat at the table while her iconic Banquette Crocodile (2010) and Trône de Pauline (2007) sit nearby. Alongside these, visitors will encounter more austere works of her late husband François-Xavier Lalanne, including a duo of his fanciful dogs, Petit Chien Héroïque (Bibi and Loulou), his iconic Mouton de Laine (1965-1974) and the elegant, Brancusi-inspired Petit Génie de Bellerive sur Pylône.
Francois-Xavier's incredible La Boîte à Sardines (1971), a bed of silver leather sardine cushions sitting sumptuously inside a giant sardine tin Photograph: ©The London List
A secret peep-hole beckons visitors to peer inside a strange a dreamlike room, where Claude's intricate handmade silver cutlery service comprised of twigs, shells, leaves, petals and other ephemera from the natural word is suspended over Francois-Xavier's incredible La Boîte à Sardines (1971), a bed of silver leather sardine cushions sitting sumptuously inside a giant sardine tin.
Together, the Lalannes' works are at once playful, profound, elegant and evocative. “Having a sheep in your living room, as opposed to an armchair or a wood bench, is just pure fun,” says American landscape artist Madison Cox, a longtime friend of the Lalannes.