In an eerily similar instance, French sculptor Claude Lalanne passed away in 2019 (aged 95), outliving her husband and working partner François-Xavier Lalanne by eleven years – while Franco Bulgarian sculptor Christo shuffled off this mortal coil the following year, having outlived his wife and working partner Jeanne-Claude…by eleven years. Of course, the latter pair had gone on to monumental acclaim for their opinion-dividing, but always headline-grabbing public spectacles, like the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin, and The (bright orange) Gates project in New York’s Central Park.

But the couple operating under the plainly literal banner Les Lalanne did work that was just as scene-stealing, whilst also exhibiting a uniquely cagey sort of humor. The pair first came to notoriety when they received a commission from Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, for the designer’s autumn/winter 1969 haute couture presentation. They decisively entered the greater pop culture consciousness when Serge Gainsbourg purchased one of Claude’s sculptures, The man with the head of a cabbage, and used it for the cover and title of his 1976 album L’Homme à tête de chou.

London’s Claridge’s hotel has long been a galvanizing point for challenging contemporary art, last year debuting its new gallery ArtSpace with an exhibition of works by that very well-known cultural agitator Damien Hirst, while also unveiling its cool, art-adorned Painter’s Room bar. And with international travel now fully opened back up, we strenuously recommend beating a path to Blighty’s capital to take in the breathtaking Les Lalanne survey currently jointly showing at the hotel and the nearby Ben Brown Fine Arts, but also literally extending onto the streets of Mayfair.

Les Lalanne: Makers of Dreams features more than 100 works by the legendary duo, as “choreographed” by Italian designer Manfredi della Gherardesca. And it’s a vivid reminder that back when so much of the tastemaking art world’s attention was turned towards various strands of abstraction, they created zeitgeist-defying life-sized sculpts that occupied an area somewhere between the literal, the surreal, and the slyly droll – for instance, François-Xavier’s actually functional Hippopotame I, a made-to-scale hippopotamus fashioned out of blue resin, which converts, Transformers style, into the bathtub of Salvador Dali’s wildest bathtime dreams.

Also notably on show with be a quartet of iterations of Claude’s Choupatte, a mythical creature with a veined cabbage head atop a pair of chicken feet, betraying either a crafty sort of sardonicism, or perhaps confirming access to a certain top class level of psychedelic narcotics. The exhibition also boasts some astonishing pieces never before put on public display, like Francois’ slightly ominous looking Sauterelle (grasshoper) Bar, a duplicate of which is actually housed, for some not so easy to discern reason, in Windsor Castle itself.

But surely the most histrionic/camp tableaux is that of Claude’s 1994 bronze and electroplated Olympe statue, complete with freakishly large butterfly held aloft, being followed by a flock of faceless sheep sculpts, all on their way to god knows where. Pied Piper style. Meaning it’s the one serious current exhibition of contemporary art that your kids will probably thank you for taking them to.

“The work of Les Lalanne has become renowned the world over,” enthuses gallerist Ben Brown. “The ways in which these artists created such discombobulating yet beautiful contradictions are part of their enduring appeal. It’s a privilege having worked with the artists and now their legacies to be exhibiting such a widescale body of works.”

Les Lalanne: Makers of Dreams will be on exhibit at Claridge’s ArtSpace and Ben Brown Fine Arts through July 30.

Get exclusive editorial and updates from BlackBook right in your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter.

You must be logged in to post a comment.