François-Xavier Lalanne's “Troupeau des Eléphants dans les Arbres” Table
“Animals have always fascinated me, perhaps because they are the only beings through whom one can enter into another world. Otherwise one is stuck in the human world, which is to say in one’s own image, like a man ceaselessly pacing in a house lined with mirrors, finding nothing but his own reflection.”
If there could be only one emblematic motif to unite the illustrious career of François-Xavier Lalanne, it would inevitably be the designer’s never-ending enrapture with the world of animals. In speaking about the constant inspiration he found in their vastness, Lalanne remarked “The animal world constitutes the richest and most varied source of forms on the planet. Furthermore, it provides a gigantic vocabulary of signs and metaphors. And do not forget that animals are man’s oldest companions.” Lalanne wished to escape into the animal world, to bring their unending mystery and intrigue into the lives of the humans he found himself surrounded by. Lalanne’s “Troupeau d' Éléphants dans les Arbres” Table, bridging the familiar and the fantastical, the functional and the sculptural, and the fine and the decorative art, immediately evokes the very best of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne’s “Zoophites,” both the name of the husband-wife duo Les Lalanne’s first joint exhibition in Paris in June 1964 and an obsolete French term referring to creatures that seem to bridge the gap between the natural and the animal world. The octagonal table, accompanied by seven free-standing elephants that, in many configurations, seem to march amongst each other as a herd under the trees, thoroughly encapsulates the simultaneously functional and whimsical world that was espoused by Lalanne for the entirety of his career.
One of the most prolific Surrealists of the 20th and 21st centuries, Lalanne counted himself as a contemporary of some of the most important artists of the 20th century avant-garde. His immediate peers included the likes of Brâncuși, Man Ray, Max Ernst, and Marcel Duchamp, all of whom had a sizable influence on the Surrealist tendencies of his peerless forays into sculpture and design. Lalanne’s practice was similarly influenced by his time working as a security guard at the Louvre, where he familiarized himself with ancient animals and mythologies throughout the Egyptian and Assyrian wings, beginning an early interest in the animal kingdom. His fascination with the lives of animals evolved into his sculptural forms, imbuing a Surrealist touch by transforming these creatures into everyday objects. From baboon fireplaces, sheep-seats, rhinoceros desks, to hippopotamus bathtubs, the fantastical – and the seemingly impossible – was always within reach for Lalanne.
The present table, consisting of a herd of size-varying gilded elephants that seem to gather together under the protection of Acacia trees in the African savanna, could almost be passed over for its functional use as a table by its immediate enchantment as a sculpture. The gilt legs of the table, fashioned into trees that gradually twist upwards into organic offshoots and branches, hold above them the octagonal glass top that protects the elephants below. Each one of the seven free-standing elephants can be moved into any configuration desired by its owner, whether they be around the table or even on top of it, resulting in a sculpture that can only best be activated through a human’s engagement, a frequent trick of Lalanne’s. Once placed into a static position, the elephants exude a kind of stillness that Lalanne described aptly: “No creature on earth has so great an aptitude for stillness as a wild animal. Its stillness so absolute that in its natural environment, it can become invisible…they have remained, as it were, in the state of paradise, which is to say in the state of nature.” It is only fitting, then, that so much of Lalanne’s practice revolves around disrupting this very stillness, with works that constantly invite the active interaction of the human.
The animals of the savannah figured strongly into Lalanne’s world throughout his career, especially as it was with his much-celebrated “Rhinocrétaire I” that he began his foray into the world of sculpture. Lalanne’s interest in their large size, something he could manipulate in his own designs, is reflected in his writings about his creative process: “I remembered that moment of peace, when large animals, in the vastness of the savannah, are profiles on the line of the horizon, all heading towards the watering hole.”
The largest mammal in the animal kingdom, the elephant might immediately seem to be on a scale impossible to reproduce in sculpture. Lalanne’s whimsical impulse rejects this idea, instead reproducing the animal in seven different sizes, ranging from the miniature to the slightly-larger than handheld. From large topiaries, fountains, andirons, bowls, and candlesticks, the elephant has presented itself as an endless source of fascination for Lalanne, and finds one of its most beguiling forms in the present table, its form being replicated over and over. An incredibly small number of examples of this model are known to exist, making the present model an especially unique opportunity to acquire a true masterwork by the great pioneer of 20th century design.
