Creating art as whimsical as it is accomplished, sophisticated as it is surreal and original as it is iconic, the husband and wife duo Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne are cult figures in the art world to countless avid fans – myself included. Not only do I personally love their pieces, but as a designer I am also intrigued by the inspiration they take from nature as well as the powerful and unique identity they have created for themselves – not to mention their penchant for the unexpected.

Claude and François-Xavier pair met in Paris in 1952 at his first gallery show. François-Xavier had started out studying sculpture and drawing at the Académie Julian, Claude had studied at the École des Arts Décoratifs and been known primarily for her painting. It wasn’t until when, bound together by their shared passion for animals and nature, they started working together in 1956 that they both turned almost exclusively to sculpture. From that moment on, their own particular brand of ‘living art’ was born.

Whilst Les Lalanne are most famous as a couple, working together on a daily basis and exhibiting only as a pair, they actually produced as co creators rather than collaborators. Each always had different approaches, techniques and specialities. It is François-Xavier who created their huge and playful steel plated sculptures, their menagerie of animals that includes life size rhinos that double as a desk, hippos that fold out to reveal an entire bar and their wonderful gorilla complete with concealed inner safe. Some of his most famous pieces were his life-sized fluffy sheep that double as benches – Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé had a flock in their living room. What strikes me most about these works is how the humour and joy to be found in them seem as important as the craftsmanship and creativity. This is art that’s full of personality, that’s not afraid to provoke a smile as much as it is appreciation, and as such it reflects what we try to convey in our own designs.

Claude, meanwhile, (my personal favorite,) has historically been more concerned with flora and fauna, creating extraordinarily beautiful bronze chandeliers, chairs and tables hewn out of a tangle of delicate branches with an almost fairytale like effect. Frequently taking inspiration from nature at Kotur – we return regularly to floral motifs, animal skins, natural fibres and botanical prints as a starting point for our designs – her transformation of the natural into something almost jewel like is endlessly inspiring to us.

Francois Xavier died in 2008 but his wife now aged 91 continues the Lalanne name, still producing pieces from their rural studio in Ury an hour outside Paris. Their work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris in 2010 and is now on show at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York. With pieces including a version of the famous ‘Hall of mirrors’ created for Yves Saint Laurent in 1974 by François-Xavier and Claude’s ‘Lustres,’ a chandelier of bronze entwined flowers and branches that dangles above them, it is really not hard to see why the wow factor of and appetite for Les Lalanne shows no sign of abating. This is art with a strong personality, creativity that revels in the unexpected and mixes the playful with the beautiful. For those and so many other reasons, at Kotur we turn time and time again to it for inspiration.

Les Lalanne is on show at Paul Kasmin Gallery, Hong Kong until May 2nd 2015. For those who cannot make the exhibition, a book, Les Lalanne, Fifty Years of Work 1964 – 2015 has also been produced.

Photo Courtesy: http://maryandmatt.net, benbrownfinearts.com, bornrich.com