Les Lalanne: FOG: Design + Art

 “Claude and François-Xavier are a magical couple… Together and individually their work reflects this magic—the love, whimsy, the fantasy and the chic. Living with their works is a privilege. It is a constant reminder of instinct, artistry and craft. A wonderland of ideas realized beautifully. A joy. Like their art, they are true originals” - Marc Jacobs

Paul Kasmin Gallery is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition at the FOG Design+Art fair in San Francisco with a solo presentation of sculpture by Les Lalanne. Inspired by Yves Saint Laurent’s music room (from the designer’s apartment at 55 rue de Babylone, Paris, for which he commissioned over a dozen of Claude’s bronze mirrors) the exhibition brings together works from 1986 to 2017. Highlights include François-Xavier’s Gorille Derange (2007/2010) and Claude’s surrealist Table aux Serpents (2017) which has never before been exhibited in the USA. 

The works of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne span a fifty-year career that began in 1952 at their atelier on Impasse Ronsin, the historic Parisian alley inextricably associated with the beginnings of Dada and surrealism. Here, Les Lalanne’s studio neighbor and close friend Constantin Brâncusi visited daily, greatly influencing the young couple’s artistic movements. 

Though often perceived to be one, each artist has a distinct style. Claude’s profoundly baroque molds, casts and electro-plating works embody a lyrical delicacy focusing on plants and vegetation. Haphazard in her construction, Claude works primarily from instinct. Her process exists in contrast to François-Xavier’s tendency for pre-planning his markedly heavier iron, copper, bronze and marble animal forms. Upon these, Claude remarked, ‘It is true: that which is truly well designed is clearly formulated, and for me, this perfectly defines his character.’ 

Paul Kasmin had been a frequent visitor to Les Lalanne’s studio in Ury, France, for over ten years. The space there acts as both a busy workshop and a living museum, boasting sprawling art-filled gardens that are reminiscent of the surreal landscapes in Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass. Commenting on this studio, and on Les Lalanne’s character in the face of their success, the acclaimed landscape gardener Madison Cox has said, “I think they have always been very faithful to the wonderful spirit of their place. They have a great series of collectors throughout the world, they are in all of the grand collections, but there is a certain modesty that has always been there in the almost forty years I have known them.”