From 1979, Claude and her husband François-Xavier Lalanne took an interest in topiary art. Ornamental garden sculpture was once found only in public spaces or the most prestigious parks. The Lalannes decided to use plant matter as a new medium for sculpture, as can be seen with Le Dimetrodon....
From 1979, Claude and her husband François-Xavier Lalanne took an interest in topiary art. Ornamental garden sculpture was once found only in public spaces or the most prestigious parks. The Lalannes decided to use plant matter as a new medium for sculpture, as can be seen with Le Dimetrodon. The dimetrodon was a prehistoric beast that lived in Europe and America around 250 million years ago. This piece can be found in the Jardins de la Petite Afrique, around the pond with its pretty fountain. The various parts of its anatomy are made of metal, while the body consists of a latticework frame on which plants are growing. The combination makes for a symbiotic, living artwork intended to be a growing organic part of a plant environment.
A nature sculptor, Claude Lalanne was born in 1924 in Paris, where she studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts et des Arts Décoratifs. For many years, Claude and her husband François-Xavier worked as decorators before turning to sculpture, both solo and as a couple, in 1956. Their first exhibition was held at Galerie J in Paris in 1964. Claude Lalanne took inspiration from the vegetal forms of Art Nouveau, to which she brought a poetic and surrealist dimension. She also aimed to avoid creating multiples, instead preferring single, unique pieces. Yves Saint Laurent once remarked that Claude Lalanne combined “craftsmanship and poetry”. A retrospective exhibition was devoted to her work in 2010 in Paris. She died in 2019.
