Incollect Magazine - Issue 10

Incollect Magazine 67 n 2014, Kelvin LaVerne asked the New York design dealer Evan Lobel to collaborate with him on a reference book about his and his father’s work — elaborately decorated, immaculately finished, cast, engraved, and brazed pewter and bronze furniture and sculptures that erased all boundaries between art and design. “Anyone who knows me knows that I like to work at a quick pace and get a lot done very efficiently,” Lobel says. “It is now more than 10 years later and finally, this book is published. Kelvin and I have a great relationship. I’m so fond of him and he’s so funny and we get along great. But he’s an artist and a perfectionist and so am I. It needed to be absolutely perfect.” Perfectionism is a characteristic of everything the LaVernes made. The father and son team of Philip (1907–1987) and Kelvin (b. 1937) LaVerne were innovative artist-designers who created limited edition pieces of furniture so complicated to produce that pieces could take months, even sometimes years to complete. They experimented for six years with metals and soils from around the world to refine an oxidation process that delivered exactly the right patina. “That’s why the book is called Alchemy, ” Lobel says, “they were not just artists and designers but scientists.” The LaVernes embraced classical ideas, forms, and craftsmanship in contrast to the popular, mass-produced modernist furniture of the era. Their furniture often involved binding bronze or brass and pewter and cutting or engraving designs into metal before underground aging and natural oxidation. The metal was then cleaned, polished, and painted by hand with enamels. They also experimented with metal casting and welding or brazing with a blow torch. Philip conceived the designs with Kelvin and Kelvin did all the physical creation. He also had a team of artisans to assist him, as the process was labor intensive with everything done by hand. “Kelvin is at heart an artist and doesn’t like to be pushed or rushed; look at the level of thought and detail that goes into their work,” Lobel says. Lobel on the other hand is a scholar and writer and wanted to get as much information as he could from Kelvin and synthesize it into a narrative. Kelvin suffered health challenges during the time they were working on the book. “He is in his eighties and the situation became serious,” Lobel explains. “So we had to stop working on the book a couple of times, for extended periods until he was better.” Dance of the Fauves coffee table, circa 1970. This striking piece balances lightness and heaviness, organic and geometric shapes, tied together by an exuberant and painterly polychrome finish and deep patination throughout. Five irregular bronze plates, three decorated with geometric motifs connect an organic-shaped base with a planar tabletop, which although weighty in appearance seems to hover over the base, contrasting the animated, dancing qualities of the plates with the monolithic, almost brutalist nature of the overall form.