Louisa Guinness Gallery is delighted to present Butterflies et Bijoux, a solo exhibition of small sculpture by renowned French artist Claude Lalanne. The exhibition brings together over 50 years of work from the 1970s to the present, including previously unseen pieces from the artist’s personal collection, as well as two works from the iconic 1967 “Empreinte Series” created with Yves Saint Laurent.
The success of Lalanne’s sculpture and jewellery is in part due to her mastery of electroplating, a process which allows the complete transformation of organic material into copper. Flora or fauna, often taken from the artist’s garden, is submerged in a bath of copper sulphate with a current running through it. The copper builds on the organic material, ultimately creating a perfect metallic replica of the original. The artist then sews these fossilised forms together, giving them new life as fantastical pieces of art. It is this process, enshrining creative spontaneity, that separates Claude’s work from the meticulously drafted constructivism of her husband’s.
Lalanne has used jewellery throughout her career as a medium of artistic expression and continues to do so at the age of 92. Displaying pieces from across her ubiquitous career, the exhibition traces the roots of her inspiration, from her work with Galerie J – the foremost surrealist dealer in Paris – to her friendships with fellow surrealist artists, including Man Ray and Dali.
