Magritte and Les Lalanne: Two Generations of Surrealism

The first exhibition to put Magritte and Les Lalanne in direct dialogue, Magritte and Les Lalanne: In the Mind’s Garden, running through December 13 at the Madison Avenue venue, features more than 80 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures from major private collections in a surreal setting. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive illustrated catalog featuring writings by prominent scholars of Surrealism, focusing on Magritte and Les Lalanne.

Organized through collaboration by Emmanuel Di Donna of Di Donna Galleries and Ben Brown of Ben Brown Fine Arts in London, two experienced dealers who began their careers as modern art specialists at Sotheby’s, this impressive exhibition takes viewers to a world where nature is constantly changing— shaped by perception, memory, and creativity. In this metaphorical garden, the boundaries between reality and the surreal blur, and imagination drives all growth.

Magritte’s surreal compositions skillfully twist logic, blending reality and illusion, while Les Lalanne’s sculptures whimsically reimagine nature. François-Xavier’s imaginative animals often serve both as art and as functional objects, with Claude’s intricate botanical designs beautifully combining plant and human elements. 

Magritte and Les Lalanne share more than just their sensibility; in the 1960s, all three were supported by Greek-American gallerist Alexander Iolas. He recognized their talent for transforming reality into something revealing. His support helped their works thrive where mystery, playfulness, and metamorphosis converge.

A museum-quality show, highlights by Magritte include a late-1930s painting of a female nude set within an indeterminate landscape, Le Miroir Universel (The Universal Mirror); a 1945 still life painting, La Mémoire, featuring a blood-stained classical bust of a young woman, symbolizing the psychological pain of World War II; a 1966 oil on canvas of a silhouetted dove, L’Oiseau de Ciel (The Sky Bird), whose body features a blue sky dotted with white clouds, commissioned as the emblem for the Belgian national airline; Les Travaux d’Alexandre (The Works of Alexander), a 1967 bronze sculpture of an axe entwined and overtaken by the roots of the tree it felled; and Sans Title (Without Title), a vibrant colored pencil drawing from 1941 of a nude woman, created during his “sunlight period,” which uniquely blends Surrealism with Impressionism.

Standout pieces by Les Lalanne in the exhibition include Francois-Xavier Lalanne’s Hippopotame II, a monumentally scaled hippopotamus sculpture from 1976/2007 that opens to reveal a functioning bar, along with a smaller version from 1996; his 2007 Poisson Paysage V (Fish Landscape V), a bronze of a giant fish on a pedestal with a cutout aperture in its body for viewing the natural world; several 1968 to 2017 versions of Claude Lalanne’s Choupatte, a bronze of a cabbage perched on bird-like legs, as well as a sculpture of an expecting nude female figure with a cabbage head, titled Caroline Enceinte (Caroline Pregnant) from 1969; a version of Francois-Xavier’s bronze Capricorne ll, an elongated horned goat from 1996/2004 that they used as seating to warm oneself at the fireplace; and Claude’s 1974 Portrait d’Alexander Iolas, a bronze bust of the legendary dealer atop a stone pillar.

The exhibition also highlights shared interests among the three artists. Magritte’s 1958 painting of a man in a bowler hat gazing at the horizon with a baguette and a glass of water levitating on his overcoat complements Claude Lalanne’s bronze sculpture of a baguette with eight feet, resembling a centipede. There are multiple versions of Claude’s Pomme Bouche (Apple Mouth) sculptures, dated between 1975 and 2014, that place a smile on an apple, a favorite subject of Magritte, as seen in the 1966 painting Le Prêtre Marié (The Married Priest), a pair of green apples with eye masks. And, Magritte is just as fascinated with fish as Francois-Xavier Lalanne, as shown in the Belgian artist’s 1962-63 painting La Recherche de la Vérité (The Search for Truth), which depicts an upright fish balancing on its tailfin in a castle-like realm.

Curious about how this enchanting exhibition was assembled and eager to discover some of the organizers' personal favorites in the show, Art & Object spoke with Emmanuel Di Donna and Ben Brown to get the inside scoop on Magritte and Les Lalanne: In the Mind’s Garden, a rare survey where every work on view is a dreamlike treasure.

Paul Laster: Emmanuel, how long have you been interested in these artists’ works, and when did that interest start?

Emmanuel Di Donna: I’ve been immersed in Surrealism and twentieth-century European art for most of my 30-year career, so my engagement with Magritte goes back many years. My interest in Les Lalanne began around 2000, when I met them and started visiting their home in Ury.

PL:  What is the thread that connects Magritte and Les Lalanne?

ED: The initial link is Alexander Iolas, who represented Magritte from the late 1940s and the Lalanne in the mid-1960s, but beyond that is their shared fascination with nature and metamorphosis. All three artists depict not what is, but what could be. Magritte transforms bodies into sky or stone; the Lalannes transform animals or plants into functional sculpture. They each reimagine the natural world as something fluid, dreamlike, and poetic. That spirit of transformation is the thread that binds them.

PL: Ben, when did your passion for Les Lalanne's works start, and how have you pursued it over time?

Ben Brown: In the 1990s, after meeting them through my parents, I started working with them and have continued ever since. 

PL: Whose idea was it to put these artists together in an exhibition, and how was that idea executed?

BB: Both Emmanuel and I loved the idea. We worked on a checklist of pieces we could get for the show, either from our personal collections or through loans, and came up with a nearly perfect list. Almost nothing is missing, and almost nothing is superfluous.

PL: Emmanuel, why do you think it took so long for these artists to be shown together?

ED: Magritte and Les Lalanne belonged to different generations, so their work was rarely put into dialogue—despite the fact that each was aware of the other's creative output. It takes access to very rare works to make a show like this possible, and that requires the right moment, the right lenders, and the right curatorial vision. Until now, those elements had simply never aligned. It also dovetails with a broader recognition of Les Lalanne as extraordinary sculptors with an oeuvre on par with that of other Surrealists.

PL: Why did you decide to include Alexander Iolas in the conversation, and why was his role with these artists so significant?

ED: Iolas is the connective tissue between them. He played a major role in elevating Magritte’s profile internationally—he’s been described as the dealer who transformed Magritte from ‘a Belgian oddity into a worldwide celebrity.’ And he also championed the Lalannes from the very beginning. Including Iolas allowed us to anchor the exhibition historically and to show how these artists, who seem so different, were actually part of the same artistic ecosystem.

PL: Ben, did you know Alexander Iolas or work with him? What made him unique?

BB: No. He died in 1985. He was one of the greatest dealers of the past 100 years. His ability to meld all these amazing artists he worked with at a time when things were more challenging. He also had galleries in Athens, Milan, Paris, and New York, so he moved around a lot. 

PL: Emmanuel, how did you and Ben come up with the concept for the installation, and what do you think it contributes?

ED: We designed the exhibition as a kind of surreal garden, mixing indoor and outdoor feelings, day and night—a place where nature, imagination, and transformation intersect. I wanted the installation itself to feel immersive, so that moving through the gallery mirrors the experience of moving through the artists’ imaginations. Bringing Magritte’s landscapes and the Lalannes’ fantastical animals into a shared environment allows their conversation to unfold spatially, not just visually.

PL: What is the most iconic piece in the show by Magritte, and what makes it so special?

ED: For me, an iconic work in the exhibition is Magritte’s Le Miroir Universel. The idea of this woman morphing into the landscape—inside becoming outside, body becoming sky—perfectly captures Magritte’s poetic transformation of reality. The subject is his wife, Georgette, yet she feels both intimate and concealed, with those eyes that have no pupils, turning her into a version of a Greek goddess. It’s a masterpiece of identity, mystery, and metamorphosis.

PL: Ben, what is the most iconic piece by Claude or François-Xavier Lalanne, and what makes it so special?

BB: The hippo bar (Hippopotame I) is about as good as it gets with Francois Xavier Lalanne. The original model was acquired in the early 1970s by Alexina "Teeny" Duchamp, the wife of Marcel Duchamp, shortly after she moved into a home near Fontainebleau close to the Lalannes' studio. This story not only underlines their proximity but also deepens the connection between the Lalannes and the Surrealist circle. It’s one of Francois’ masterpieces, and it shows—so much so that he then created a smaller version to accompany the larger one. Only one other collector owns both!

PL: What is the quirkiest piece in the show by Claude or François-Xavier Lalanne, and what do you find so fascinating about it?

BB: I think the Choupatte is about as crazy as it gets in the work of Claude Lalanne. Putting chicken feet underneath a cabbage is pretty crazy. I love it in all sizes, the tiny unique ones as well as the larger cast version. 

PL: And Emmanuel, what is the strangest piece in the show by Magritte, and what makes it more surreal than his other artworks?

ED: Le Chœur des Sphinges is deceptively simple, but it may be the strangest. You see this vast green forest, and then, in the sky, these mysterious shapes that seem cut out of the canopy below. It’s a quiet disruption—objects that don’t belong where they are—and the more you look, the more uncanny it becomes. It challenges perception in a way that feels deeply, fundamentally surreal.

PL: Will the show travel to Ben Brown Fine Art in London?

ED: Unfortunately, the show will not travel. The works are far too rare and too difficult to assemble in one place. That’s exactly what makes this exhibition so special: it’s a moment that truly can’t be repeated.