Les Lalanne: Au Grand Air

About

Opening during the first week of May, Les Lalanne: Au Grand Air is timed to mark the beginning of the spring season and is staged in anticipation of the inaugural New York Art Week. Comprising two large-scale bronze sculptures by Francois-Xavier Lalanne, Sanglier de Villepinte (2006) and Lapin à Vent  (2007), and one major work by Claude Lalanne, Pomme d’Hiver (2008), the outdoor exhibition encourages audiences to consider their relationship with nature, art, and the way in which the two are connected. The presentation will continue with additional works inside at Kasmin’s 28th Street location, such as François-Xavier’s seminal work Ane Bâté (grand) (1985). 

The works on view celebrate the artists' kinship with the natural world, demonstrating their surrealist philosophy and mirroring the verdant gardens of the studio and home where the couple lived and worked together for over three decades. From their earliest exhibition in 1964 entitled Zoophites—a reference to objects with a mixture of animal and plant characteristics—the artists repeatedly drew inspiration from flora and fauna, transforming natural references into inventive creations that meld the material elegance of art nouveau metalwork with phantasmagorical formal inventions more akin to the realm of myth.

Les Lalannes' outdoor sculpture epitomizes the surrealist methodology of intervening in public space, creating juxtapositions that destabilize expectation. In conversation with the The High Line and the Hudson River and set against the backdrop of the biomorphic Zaha Hadid building, the works speak to the unexpected connections that define the life force of the city.

Kasmin is dedicated to the presentation of large-scale sculpture and continues to support public art projects around the world. Previous offsite exhibitions of Les Lalanne in New York City organized by the gallery include the popular Sheep Station at The Getty Station, Chelsea (2013) and Les Lalanne on Park Avenue presented by the New York City Parks Public Art Program in cooperation with the Fund for Park Avenue Sculpture Committee (2009). Additional public displays of Les Lalanne's outdoor sculptures at at the Palace of Versailles, France; The Raleigh Gardens, Miami; and Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens, Coral Gables, have offered the opportunity to view their work in far-off pastures.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Kasmin will release a fully-illustrated publication bringing together documentation of outdoor exhibitions by Les Lalanne in the United States and new scholarship on the work. 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Claude Lalanne (b. 1924-2019) and François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008), known individually and collectively since the 1960s as “Les Lalanne,” are remembered for their unique mélange of inventive, practical, poetic, and surrealist sculptures. Having rediscovered the Renaissance art of casting forms from life, Claude Lalanne employed contemporary electro-plating techniques, achieving a delicacy and sensitivity in her work unparalleled in cast bronze. 

François-Xavier Lalanne (1927–2008) similarly found inspiration in nature, accomplishing a streamlined elegance in his work’s profound simplicity. Following his tenure as a guard at the Musée du Louvre, the artist incorporated Egyptian and Assyrian characteristics into his sculpture, paying close attention to the animal form in ancient wall reliefs and idolic sculpture. As with both of the artists' works, his sculptures have functional value, creating a sense of accessibility that contradicts the sacred treatment of the ancient objects in the museum.

Works by Les Lalanne in public forums include a giant peace dove mounted to an obelisk in Jerusalem (1978); sculptures, walkways, and playgrounds for the Forum des Halles in Paris (1979-86); topiaries and fountains for the Place de l’Hotel de Ville in Paris (1982); a fountain in homage to Brancusi near Impasse Ronsin (1984); a large-scale fountain sculpture in Hakone, Japan (1987), and six large dinosaur-shaped topiary fountains in Santa Monica (1989).

Most recently, Les Lalanne have been the subject of the solo exhibitions, Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne: Nature Transformed at the Clark Art Institute, Massachusetts, and Les Lalanne à Trianon at The Palace of Versailles, France. The artists' work has been spotlighted previously in a retrospective at Les Arts Decoratifs in Paris, a large-scale public exhibition at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida, on New York’s Park Avenue and Getty Station, and in the sale of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent. Their work is included in major collections worldwide including the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, the Museé Nationale d’Art Moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museé d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, the City of Paris, the City of Santa Monica, and the City of Jerusalem.

ABOUT THE KASMIN SCULPTURE GARDEN

Kasmin opened the Kasmin Sculpture Garden in 2018 to spearhead a new model for programming publicly-sited monumental sculpture. The flora is designed to encourage an abundant habitat for pollinators, incorporating quaking aspens, New York Asters, Northern Bayberry, Sassafras, and Wild Lupine, along with grasses native to the region including bristle leaf sedge and dwarf tufted hair grass. Since 2018, the exhibitors have included Joel Shapiro, Robert Indiana, Barry Flanagan, Alma Allen, and George Rickey.

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