Homage to Jane Holzer: Andy Warhol and Les Lalanne

Ben Brown Fine Arts Palm Beach is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, Homage to Jane Holzer: Andy Warhol and Les Lalanne. It is guest curated by Jane Holzer—aka Baby Jane— a lifelong Palm Beach native, a Warhol muse and a passionate collector of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne. The exhibition transforms the Worth Avenue gallery with Warhol’s iconic portrait paintings of celebrities and society figures, displayed amongst the wonderful and whimsical sculptures of Les Lalanne. 

Nearly a dozen Warhol paintings from the 1970s and 80s are featured, depicting prominent society figures, celebrities, eminent philanthropists, and leaders in business and in the arts. The paintings encapsulate the glamour of Warhol’s muses and their indelible eras. Considered the father of the American Pop Art movement, from the 1960s onward Warhol famously created bold, colorful canvases of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis. Warhol’s obsession with celebrity, fame and beauty, combined with his unabashed embracing of commercialism, led the artist to begin taking portrait commissions in the 70s and 80s. These largely funded his New York City studio, ‘The Factory’. Capturing his sitters with a Polaroid camera – which he referred to as his pen and paper – Warhol utilized the still images to create vibrantly chromatic paintings employing his innovative process of hand-painting and silk-screening. Amongst the iconic and stylish portraits in the exhibition— some anonymous and others identified by name—are two Jane Holzer portraits from 1975.

Complementing Warhol’s poignant portrait paintings, is a room full of fanciful, quintessential furniture and sculptures by legendary French artistic duo Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, often referred to collectively as Les Lalanne. Holzer, an ardent collector of Les Lalanne, forged a deep friendship with them over the years through visits to their home and studio in Ury, France. “Going to visit them was magical,” says Holzer. “Their home, gardens and courtyard was filled with their beautiful pieces.” The Lalannes’ work defies categorization – it is at once surrealist, classical, contemporary, profound, playful, decorative and functional. Claude and François Xavier were the last of a generation of avant-garde artists in Paris, having tales of living next door to Constantin Brâncuși, travelling in the same circles as Alberto Giacometti, René Magritte and Max Ernst, and working with loyal collectors such as Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé. While Les Lalanne shared a studio and exhibited together throughout their careers, their works are entirely distinctive. Claude's pieces take on a more sinuous and ethereal form, depicting flora and fauna evocative of the Art Nouveau movement; François-Xavier's works, often depicting animals, offer a gravity of form and ingenious functionality. Included in the exhibition are François Xavier's iconic stone sheep, a playful monkey table and a marble and copper winged Oiseaux chair. Notable works by Claude include an elegant aluminum gingko leaf table and chairs, electroplated copper and bronze candelabra and a petite bronze Bambou chair.