François-Xavier Lalanne

Cast in 2008.

The motif of the duck occupies a central place in François-Xavier Lalanne’s zoomorphic playground of whimsical abstraction, bridging the natural and the surreal through nuanced explorations of scale and perception. Rendered across various media and dimensions, this simultaneously aerial and aquatic creature is elegantly stylized to balance a striking duality between the familiarity of its ordinary subject and the artistry of its inventive sculptural form. All the essential attributes of the duck are preserved in Canard (2008)—its slender wings and webbed feet evoking the illusion that it might spring to life at any moment. Though modestly proportioned, the duck’s form is magnified to a monumental scale, commanding its surrounding space as a distinctive sculptural statement. True to Lalanne’s characteristic approach, the animal’s head is tilted at a prominent angle—an inventive reinterpretation of the classical Greek contrapposto—that underscores the enduring influence of art history on his imaginative vision.