François-Xavier Lalanne is a French sculptor and engraver known for his artistic universe populated by poetic and functional animals.
After studying drawing, sculpture and painting in Paris from 1949 onwards, he frequented major figures in modern art such as Constantin Brancusi, René Magritte and Salvador Dalí. He presented his first solo painting exhibition in 1952 in Paris.
In the 1950s, he helped decorate the Dior boutique on Avenue Montaigne, alongside a young Yves Saint Laurent. In 1956, he began an artistic collaboration with Claude, his future wife, with whom he would sign numerous works, including the Jardin des Halles in Paris. The couple married in 1967.
François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne developed two distinct but complementary bodies of work, combining surrealism, humour and poetry. Although their creations were long perceived as inseparable, each had their own artistic language: an architectural and refined universe for him, organic and baroque for her. While Claude favoured moulding and assembly, François-Xavier turned to drawing and construction.
François-Xavier's work is distinguished by a playful and stylised bestiary, influenced in particular by Pompon and Brancusi, his studio neighbour in Montparnasse. He is famous for his functional sculptures, halfway between art and furniture: the Rhinocrétaire (a desk in the shape of a rhinoceros), the Moutons de laine (wool sheep sculptures)
or the Gorille de sûreté (safe). Convinced that art can be utilitarian, he designed his pieces with great formal rigour and a keen sense of simplicity.
Animals also occupy a central place in his engraved work.
François-Xavier Lalanne lived and worked in Ury (Seine-et-Marne) until the end of his life.