Incollect Magazine - Issue 2

2022 Incollect Magazine 51 “Synchronicity” massive freeform sculpture of welded and hand-worked bronze, riveted corners and applied texture. Photo courtesy Donzella. LaVernes than any other dealer. Currently, he has more than 30 pieces spanning 30 years of their career on display in his gallery, an impressive collection that ranges from floor lamps to mirrors, tables of all kinds, credenzas, paintings on bronze, and cast and hand-welded, brazed sculptures. Lobel has a lifelong passion for the LaVernes and has a longstanding personal relationship with Kelvin, now 85, with whom he has been writing a book on the story of the father and son design duo that he hopes will be published later this year. “We’ve been working on this book together for 8 years now,” says Lobel, adding with a grin, “In truth, I think it has been ready to publish for years now, but Kelvin is a perfectionist.” Perfectionism is a hallmark of the LaVernes inventory — obsession might be a more accurate way to describe it, for this is no ordinary furniture. Most of the Lavernes’ designs were either one of a kind or in limited edition, in contrast to the mass- produced, modernist furniture of the period. Process was really the product for the LaVernes, for while many of the forms are conventionally beautiful, the process of achieving a finished product was arduous, experimental, revolutionary and insanely time-consuming. “Kelvin tells stories of coming home with his fingers bleeding from cutting metal for tables to create the designs,” says Lobel, pointing to “Viola,” which is just one of the fretwork pieces in his gallery that brilliantly utilizes negative space to create shadows. Nearby is the “Fragonard Pierced Table,” the piece custom made for a client in 1967 and one of the largest of this design ever made; here the fretwork process includes delicate weaving of metal finely cut by hand to create floral, animal, and human shapes painted with colorful enamel. It is effusive, decorative, and fun. Lobel is the expert, but there are other galleries that show the LaVernes. They include Donzella, Gallery Girasole, Gary Rubinstein, Milord Antiquités, 20cdesign, and Victoria Rojas. Donzella is a big fan of the later, more sculptural pieces, which he also personally collects. “What has been interesting, as someone who is not really dealing in more typical works by these two artists, is to see people’s surprised faces when they discover this whole other side of their work,” he says. “These are people who thought they knew all about what Philip and Kelvin LaVerne’s output was and I’m able to open up a new chapter for them. Most people have no idea that they made this type of purely sculptural work. The contribution of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne’s work within the pantheon of great 20th-century studio and craft design is only beginning to be fully appreciated, and I’m excited to be one of the people shaking up the market and helping to elevate this material.” Francis Lord, owner of Milord Antiquités has dealt in the LaVernes for 20 years and regards their work as “totally unique,” and therefore holds a special place in 20th-century design. “This sort of work was never seen before and not seen after, much like designs by Paul Evans, their contemporary.” For Joseph Abdulian, owner of Gallery Girasole in Los Angeles, it was the amazing technical virtuosity of the LaVerne pieces that eventually captivated him, plus their beauty. “When I first discovered the LaVerne’s work I liked it but I wasn’t addicted to it then. More and more I learned about the techniques and processes, and when you see the complete product it is just so beautiful and so unique you realize it will never go out of style. That is what I like about LaVerne furniture, it is timeless. It’s really a work of art.” Nothing left the LaVernes’ New York studio until it was ready in the eyes of the artists which meant pieces could take months,