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Whimsy in Bronze: Galerie Mitterrand Casts a Spell at TEFAF New York

Whimsy in Bronze: Galerie Mitterrand Casts a Spell at TEFAF New York May 7, 2025Art Events, New York0 Comments

Whimsy, Wildness & Wonder: Galerie Mitterrand Brings the Fantastic to TEFAF – New York

8 to 13 May 2025

Stand 332

In a world where art often whispers, the works brought by Galerie Mitterrand to TEFAF New York this spring do something else entirely – they breathe. They animate, seduce, and surprise. With a surrealist gleam and a bronze heartbeat, this exhibition is a poetic and audacious nod to form, memory, and metamorphosis.

At the heart of it all is Claude Lalanne’s Pomme de Londres (2007), a monumental bronze apple that feels both sacred and playful – a fusion of Eden and dream, as if plucked from a garden where time folds into art. Inspired by the garden she shared with François-Xavier Lalanne in Ury, near Paris, this recurring motif is not just an object, but a mythology in metal. It’s joined by her legendary Fauteuils Crocodile – a seat, yes, but more so a story. Cast from real crocodile skins, these works speak of boldness and beauty entwined, offering an aesthetic that is both primal and refined.

Claude Lalanne

Fauteuil Crocodile, 2015 Bronze patiné Patinated bronze
© Estate of Claude Lalanne. Courtesy of Mitterrand, Paris. Photo : Rebecca Fanuele

Nearby, François-Xavier Lalanne’s mechanical Petit Rhinocéros (1982) evokes a nostalgia that’s part childhood toy, part fantastical totem. The rhinoceros was, after all, one of his great obsessions — not only sculpted in massive proportions but miniaturized and mechanized with charming precision. His Singes Attentifs complete the ensemble: two attentive monkeys, still as statues yet alive with a kind of intellectual tension. They feel like the guardians of a world that exists just behind the veil of ours.

François-Xavier Lalanne

Petit Rhinocéros Mécanique, 1982 Cuivre
© Estate of François-Xavier Lalanne. Courtesy of Mitterrand, Paris. Photo : Aurélien Mole

François-Xavier Lalanne

Singe attentif, 1992 Bronze patiné
Patinated bronze
H 76 x 18 x 16 cm
H 29 7/8 x 7 1/8 x 6 1/4 in HC 0/0

François-Xavier Lalanne

Mouton de laine, 1977-1978 bois Patinated bronze, wool, wood

H 89 x 97 x 50 cm

H 35 x 38 1/4 x 19 3/4 in Unique

But Galerie Mitterrand’s curation doesn’t stop at the Lalannes. It folds in the conceptual rigor of Alighiero Boetti, whose Senza Prima né Dopo (1991) — composed entirely of dense blue ballpoint pen strokes — is both meditative and cerebral. It speaks of time, language, and patience, drawn out slowly by hand yet pulsing with contemporary urgency.

Alighiero Boetti

A silent marvel by Max Ernst — The Bird That Sits and Does Not Sing (1926) — roots the show in surrealism’s darker soil. Mysterious, raw, and textural, it suggests the quiet power of inner myth. And yes, Warhol is here too — not with his louder icons, but with an undercurrent that completes the room like a well-timed wink in a dark suit.

Together, these works invite the viewer into a realm where function, fantasy, and form collide. Where furniture becomes allegory. Where animals become muses. Where art becomes a kind of gentle madness.

At Stand 332, TEFAF New York becomes more than a fair. It becomes a garden of the surreal — lush, intelligent, and utterly unforgettable.

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