April 16, 2020

Text: Annie Block

Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne Exhibition to Feature Flora and Fauna Furnishings

In the Les Lalanne exhibition at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, May 9 through November 1, will be Mouflon de Pauline, in patinated bronze, leather, wood, brass, and paint. Photography courtesy of Kasmin Gallery and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADGAP, Paris. 

The art world lost one of its brightest lights when Claude Lalanne died last April. But an upside of her passing has been a celebration and an increased exposure of her and her late husband’s work. During Art Basel Miami last winter, for instance, Interior Design Hall of Fame member Peter Marino and landscape architect Raymond Jungles transformed a plot of dirt behind the Raleigh hotel into a lush secret garden dotted with 32 copper and bronze sculptures by the French couple, known as Les Lalanne. This spring, “Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne: Nature Transformed” opens at the Clark Art Institute. The exhibition, in planning for years and reviewed with Claude while still alive, showcases 20 objects from across both artists’ long careers, which centered on morphing real-life flora and fauna into surreal and inventively new forms. Among François-Xavier’s animal-sculpture furnishings will be Claude’s innovative flatware and jewelry.

La Sauterelle, in porcelain, polished brass, and steel. Photography by Tom Carter/courtesy of Ben Brown Fine Arts and ARS, New York/ADAGP.
The gilt patinated-bronze Lapin à Vent. Photography by Nicolas Dubois/Art Digital Studio/courtesy of Sotheby’s and ARS, New York/ADAGP, Paris.
The copper Petit Rhinocéros Mécanique. Photography courtesy of Galerie Lefebvre, Paris and ARS, New York/ADAGP, Paris.
Photography courtesy of Kasmin Gallery and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADGAP, Paris.

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