Claude Lalanne

Born on November 28th, 1925, in Paris, France and died on April 10th, 2019, in Ury, France.

Claude Lalanne, whose work has almost always been presented alongside that of her husband François-Xavier Lalanne, is one of the few French artists whose exceptional reputation is now celebrated all over the world. The Lalanne have developed two parallel works of surrealist association, full of humor and poetry, but each according to its own modus operandi. Claude Lalanne's works are produced using techniques associated with imprinting, molding and electroplating. This process, which she discovered in 1956 thanks to the American artist James Metcalf, is a goldsmithing technique that enables athin layer of metal to be deposited around a shape using an electrolysis bath. Claude Lalanne then fixes natural forms, instinctively transforming them into sculptures, tables,

chairs, benches, mirrors, among others. Claude's style is driven by her intuitive spirit and an innate sense of ornamentation: ‘What counts is the form and what it conveys to me’ (1).

Claude Lalanne studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Her work has been shown in major exhibitions around the world, including at the White Chapel in London in 1976, the Château de Chenonceau in 1991, the Château de Bagatelle in 1998, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2010, and more recently at the Château de Versailles and the Clark Art Institute in the United States in 2021.

Claude Lalanne has been represented throughout her career by the Iolas and Mitterrand galleries in Paris, Ben Brown in London and Kasmin in New York.

1 - Lalanne, exhibition catalogue, JGM. Galerie, Paris, 2013, p.9. Interview with Dorothée Lalanne