Kasmin Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Fairs
  • News
  • The Kasmin Review
    • In Conversation
    • Weekend Long Reads
    • Storyboard
    • Studio Visits
    • Screenings
    • All
  • Books
  • About
Menu
  • Current
  • Past
  • Online

Les Lalanne

Past exhibition
March 16 – April 22, 2017 293 Tenth Avenue, New York
  • Works
  • About the Artists
  • Explore
  • Paul Kasmin Gallery is honored to present Les Lalanne, featuring over 20 recent and historical works from the pioneering French sculptors, Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne. The exhibition will be on view March 16 to April 22, 2017 at 293 Tenth Avenue.

    Since 1956 the husband and wife team, known as Les Lalanne, has forged a course singularly their own with an oeuvre that is inventive, poetic, and surreal. While each has a distinct practice, their sculptures often take on hybrid forms with novel functions inserting the natural world into intimate spaces. Prefacing their first joint exhibition in 1964, American sculptor James Metcalf declared the work of Les Lalanne “as individual and unique as every one of us”.

  • Installation view, Les Lalanne New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, March 16 – April 22, 2017 Photo by: Diego Flores & Christopher Stach / Paul Kasmin Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Les Lalanne New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, March 16 – April 22, 2017 Photo by: Diego Flores & Christopher Stach / Paul Kasmin Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Les Lalanne New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, March 16 – April 22, 2017 Photo by: Diego Flores & Christopher Stach / Paul Kasmin Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Les Lalanne New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, March 16 – April 22, 2017 Photo by: Diego Flores & Christopher Stach / Paul Kasmin Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Les Lalanne New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, March 16 – April 22, 2017 Photo by: Diego Flores & Christopher Stach / Paul Kasmin Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Les Lalanne New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, March 16 – April 22, 2017 Photo by: Diego Flores & Christopher Stach / Paul Kasmin Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Les Lalanne New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, March 16 – April 22, 2017 Photo by: Diego Flores & Christopher Stach / Paul Kasmin Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
  • One such sculpture is François-Xavier’s Hippopotame II (bar), 1976. Cast in bronze, the animal’s jaws and belly open to reveal hidden compartments for its intended purpose of a fully functioning bar. Moutons de Laines (Troupeau de 3), 1974, among his best known and beloved figures, were first introduced in 1965 at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture in Paris. Made of wool and bronze on casters, the sheep double as benches, while playfully suggesting a flock of three sheep, at once bringing joie de vivre and breaking up the monotony of daily life.

    Claude, known for seamlessly fusing natural elements from her garden, intertwines branches, leaves, and crocodile skins to create furniture such as gingko benches, croco bureaus and bamboo tables. The iconic Gingko sculpture embodies a surrealist impulse to play with seemingly implausible forms and contexts. In Banc Gingko, 2011, Claude enlarges the tree’s unique fan-shaped leaves to a fantastical size. Rendered in gilt bronze, they entwine with branches to form the back, seat and legs of the bench, while preserving the harmonious asymmetry of its organic form.

    Les Lalanne will also feature Yves Saint Laurent’s 1993 commission of Miroir. Standing at 9.5 feet tall, it is one of the largest, single mirror Claude has ever made. This work along with three new mirrors are a continuation of mirrors that once lined the walls of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Rue Bonaparte library.

     

  • Works
    • Claude Lalanne, Miroir, 2017
      Claude Lalanne, Miroir, 2017
      Inquire
      %3Cspan%20class%3D%22title%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EClaude%20Lalanne%3Cspan%20class%3D%22artist_comma%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22comma%22%3E%2C%20%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title%22%3EMiroir%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_comma%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22comma%22%3E%2C%20%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22year%22%3E2017%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E
    • François-Xavier Lalanne, Vache Bien Etablie II, 1998
      François-Xavier Lalanne, Vache Bien Etablie II, 1998
      Inquire
      %3Cspan%20class%3D%22title%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EFran%C3%A7ois-Xavier%20Lalanne%3Cspan%20class%3D%22artist_comma%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22comma%22%3E%2C%20%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title%22%3EVache%20Bien%20Etablie%20II%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_comma%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22comma%22%3E%2C%20%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22year%22%3E1998%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E
    • François-Xavier Lalanne, Hippopotame II (bar), 1976/2007
      François-Xavier Lalanne, Hippopotame II (bar), 1976/2007
      Inquire
      %3Cspan%20class%3D%22title%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EFran%C3%A7ois-Xavier%20Lalanne%3Cspan%20class%3D%22artist_comma%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22comma%22%3E%2C%20%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title%22%3EHippopotame%20II%20%28bar%29%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_comma%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22comma%22%3E%2C%20%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22year%22%3E1976/2007%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E
  • About the Artists

    Les Lalanne
    Photo by Jean-Philippe Lalanne

    Les Lalanne

    Known individually and collectively since the 1960s, Les Lalanne’s respective practices remained recognizably distinct over their decades-long careers. Having rediscovered the Renaissance art of casting forms from life, then employing contemporary electroplating techniques, Claude Lalanne achieves a delicacy and sensitivity in her work unparalleled in cast bronze. François-Xavier’s works similarly achieve a streamlined elegance in their profound simplicity. His subjects consist of a menagerie of animals, stylized forms oftentimes married with functionality. In his words, “The animal world constitutes the richest and most varied forms on the planet.” Today, Les Lalanne’s works are included in premier museum collections and public venues across the world. In 2021, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, mounted Les Lalanne’s first dedicated art museum exhibition in the United States since 1977, soon followed by a major exhibition at the Palace of Versailles in France.

    Learn More
  • Join our Newsletter

    Signup

    * denotes required fields

    We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

  • Explore

    • Alma Allen on Park Avenue
      Exhibitions

      Alma Allen on Park Avenue

      May 2 – September 30, 2025

      In Alma Allen's largest outdoor installation to date, ten unique bronze and onyx sculptures including examples reaching over 10 feet tall and realized especially for the exhibition, are on view at eight sites that span the Park Avenue Malls between East 52nd and East 70th Streets.

      Explore Now
  • Explore
    • Diana Al-Hadid
    • Alma Allen
    • Theodora Allen
    • Sara Anstis
    • Ali Banisadr
    • Tina Barney
    • Judith Bernstein
    • JB Blunk
    • Mattia Bonetti
    • William N. Copley
    • Cynthia Daignault
    • Ian Davenport
    • Max Ernst
    • Liam Everett
    • Leonor Fini
    • Barry Flanagan
    • Walton Ford
    • Jane Freilicher
    • vanessa german
    • Daniel Gordon
    • Alexander Harrison
    • Elliott Hundley
    • Robert Indiana
    • Lee Krasner
    • Les Lalanne
    • Matvey Levenstein
    • Lyn Liu
    • Robert Motherwell
    • Jamie Nares
    • Nengi Omuku
    • Robert Polidori
    • Jackson Pollock
    • Elliott Puckette
    • Alexis Ralaivao
    • George Rickey
    • James Rosenquist
    • Mark Ryden
    • Jan-Ole Schiemann
    • Joel Shapiro
    • Bosco Sodi
    • Dorothea Tanning
    • Naama Tsabar
    • Bernar Venet
Back to Past exhibitions

509 West 27th Street

New York
Monday–Thursday, 10am–5pm
Friday, 10am–4pm
+1 212 563 4474
info@kasmingallery.com

 

297 Tenth Avenue

New York
Monday–Thursday, 10am–5pm
Friday, 10am–4pm
+1 212 563 4474
info@kasmingallery.com

 

Kasmin Sculpture Garden

New York
On view from The High Line at 27th Street
Monday–Sunday, 7am-11pm
+1 212 563 4474
info@kasmingallery.com

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Join the mailing list
Manage cookies
© 2025 Kasmin Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our Newsletter

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.