Ben Brown Fine Arts is honoured to present
Les Lalanne in London, an elaborate and extensive exhibition celebrating the extraordinary
oeuvres of Claude and the late François-Xavier Lalanne. Transformed into a fantastical tea party-like setting, the gallery space overflows 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. Choreographed by interior designer Manfredi della Gherardesca,
Les Lalanne brings together over 60 works by Claude and François-Xavier and offers a panorama of their artistic output from the 1960s to the present.
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.
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.
While
Les Lalanne shared a studio and exhibited together throughout their careers, their
oeuvres are entirely distinctive. Claude¡¯s work embodies a more sinuous and ethereal form with inspiration taken directly from nature while François-Xavier¡¯s works offer a gravity of form and functional ingenuity that redefine their original representation. Together, the Lalannes¡¯ works are at once playful, profound, elegant and evocative, and equally suitable for traditional and contemporary environments.
Please
CLICK HERE to view the selection of works.