Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne: Nature Transformed

Les Lalanne, a husband-wife artistic duo, created imaginative and frequently surprising works that have gained widespread acclaim and collection since the 1960s. This book features a curated selection of sculptures that highlight their common interest in transforming natural forms into new purposes, such as François-Xavier's giant grasshopper sculpture that doubles as a bar and Claude's bench made of galvanized metal branches and vines. The critical analysis examines the entirety of the artists' careers, addresses the complex issues of their work's reception and categorization, and encourages readers to reevaluate their art's position within art museums.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 128 pages
Publication date: 02 November 2021
Publisher: Yale University Press

François-Xavier (1927–2008) and Claude (1925–2019) Lalanne were a husband-wife team of artists who created inventive and often surprising works that have been widely admired and collected since the 1960s. This book presents a carefully selected group of sculptures that focus on a shared preoccupation of the artists: the transformation of natural forms to serve new purposes, such as François-Xavier's giant grasshopper sculpture that opens into a bar and Claude's bench made of galvanized metal branches and vines, such that it remains as much a forest as a place to sit.

Critical analysis explores the full breadth of the artists' careers; considers the complex issues of reception and categorization of their work; and prompts a reevaluation of the place their art occupies in the context of art museums, all while encouraging readers to consider relationships among nature, art, and their own encounters with both.

Distributed for the Clark Art Institute Exhibition Schedule: Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (May 8–October 31, 2021)

Weight: 692g
Dimension: 234 x 271 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300250848