Tamara de Lempicka
Tamara de Lempicka | |
---|---|
Tamara Łempicka | |
The Dream (1927) Self-portrait, Tamara in a Green Bugatti (1929) The Musician (1929) Adam and Eve (1932) | |
Style | Art Deco |
Spouses | Tadeusz Łempicki
(m. 1916; div. 1931)Raoul Kuffner de Diószegh
(m. 1934; died 1961) |
Children | Maria Krystyna 'Kizette' Łempicka Foxhall (daughter) (1916–2001) |
Relatives | Adrienne Górska, architect (sister) |
Website | www |
Tamara Łempicka (pronounced
Born in
Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she and her husband moved to the United States and she painted celebrity portraits, as well as
Early life
Warsaw and St. Petersburg (1898–1917)
She was born on 16 May 1898, in Warsaw, then part of
Tamara was raised in Warsaw by her mother and grandparents, Bernard and Klementyna Dekler, who were members of the social and cultural elite – they were friends with
In 1911 her parents sent her to a boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland, but she was bored and she feigned illness to be permitted to leave the school. Instead, her grandmother took her on a tour of Italy, where she developed her interest in art. After her parents divorced in 1912, she chose to spend the summer with her wealthy Aunt Stefa in Saint Petersburg.[12] There, in 1915, she met and fell in love with a prominent Polish lawyer, Tadeusz Łempicki (1888–1951). Her family offered him a large dowry, and they were married in 1916 in the chapel of the Knights of Malta in St. Petersburg.[13][11]
The
Career
Paris (1918–1939)
In Paris, the Łempickas lived for a while from the sale of family jewels. Tadeusz proved unwilling or unable to find suitable work. Their daughter, Maria Krystyna "Kizette", was born around 1919,[15] adding to their financial needs. Lempicka decided to become a painter at her sister's suggestion, and studied both at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts and Académie de la Grande Chaumière with Maurice Denis and then with André Lhote, who was to have a greater influence on her style.[16][17] [18] Her first paintings were still lifes and portraits of her daughter Kizette and her neighbor. She sold her first paintings through the Galerie Colette-Weil, which allowed her to exhibit at the Salon des indépendents, the Salon d'automne, and the Salon des moins de trente ans, for promising young painters.[11] She exhibited at the Salon d'automne for the first time in 1922. During this period, she signed her paintings "Lempitzki"—the masculine form of her name.[19]
Her breakthrough came in 1925, with the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, which later gave its name to the style Art Deco. She exhibited her paintings in two of the major venues, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon des femmes peintres. Her paintings were spotted by American journalists from Harper's Bazaar and other fashion magazines, and her name became known.[11]
In the same year, she had her first major exposition in Milan, Italy, organized for her by Count Emmanuele Castelbarco. For this show, Lempicka painted 28 new works in six months.
In 1927, Lempicka won her first major award, the first prize at the Exposition Internationale des Beaux Arts in Bordeaux, France, for her portrait of Kizette on the Balcony. In 1929, another portrait of Kizette, at her First Communion, won a bronze medal at the international exposition in Poznań, Poland.[11]
In 1928 she was divorced from Tadeusz Łempicki.
In 1929, Lempicka painted one of her best-known works, Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti), for the cover of the German fashion magazine Die Dame. This showed her at the wheel of a Bugatti racing car wearing a leather helmet and gloves and wrapped in a gray scarf, a portrait of cold beauty, independence, wealth, and inaccessibility.[24] In fact, she did not own a Bugatti automobile; her own car was a small yellow Renault,[25] which was stolen one night when she and her friends were celebrating at La Rotonde in Montparnasse.
She traveled to the United States for the first time in 1929 to paint a portrait of the fiancée of the American oilman Rufus T. Bush and to arrange a show of her work at the
The wife of Baron Kuffner died in 1933.[27] De Lempicka married him on 3 February 1934 in Zurich.[28] She was alarmed by the rise of the Nazis and persuaded her husband to sell most of his properties in Hungary and to move his fortune and his belongings to Switzerland.[11]
The United States and Mexico (1939–1980)
In the winter of 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, Lempicka and her husband moved to the United States. They settled first in Los Angeles. The Paul Reinhard Gallery organized a show of her work, and they moved to
In the postwar years, she continued a frenetic social life, but she had fewer commissions for society portraits. Her art deco style looked anachronistic in the period of postwar
Baron Kuffner died of a heart attack in November 1961 on the ocean liner Liberté en route to New York.[30] Following his death, Lempicka sold many of her possessions and made three around-the-world trips by ship. In 1963, Lempicka moved to Houston, Texas, to be with Kizette and her family and retired from her life as a professional artist.[11] She continued to repaint her earlier works. She repainted her well-known Autoportrait (1929) twice between 1974 and 1979; Autoportrait II was sold, though she hung Autoportrait III in her retirement apartments, where it would remain until her death.[31] The last work she painted was the fourth copy of her painting of St. Anthony.[32]
In 1974, she decided to move to Cuernavaca, Mexico. After the death of her husband in 1979, Kizette moved to Cuernavaca to take care of de Lempicka, whose health was declining. De Lempicka died in her sleep on 18 March 1980. Following her wishes, her ashes were scattered over the volcano Popocatépetl.[20]
Rediscovery
A resurgence of interest in
Style and subjects
Lempicka's own description of her work:
I was the first woman to make clear paintings, and that was the origin of my success ... Among a hundred canvases, mine were always recognizable. The galleries tended to show my pictures in the best rooms, because they attracted people. My work was clear and finished. I looked around me and could only see the total destruction of painting. The banality in which art had sunk gave me a feeling of disgust. I was searching for a craft that no longer existed; I worked quickly with a delicate brush. I was in search of technique, craft, simplicity and good taste. My goal: never copy. Create a new style, with luminous and brilliant colors, rediscover the elegance of my models.[2][39]
She was one of the best-known painters of the Art Deco style, a group which included Jean Dupas, Diego Rivera, Josep Maria Sert, Louis Lozowick, and Rockwell Kent, but unlike these artists, who often painted large murals with crowds of subjects, she focused almost exclusively on portraits.
Her first teacher at the Academie Ranson in Paris was
Known especially for her portraits of wealthy aristocrats, she also painted highly stylized nudes.[42] The nudes are usually female, whether depicted alone or in groups; Adam and Eve (1931) features one of her few male nudes.[43] After the mid-1930s, when her Art Deco portraits had gone out of fashion and "a serious mystical crisis, combined with a deep depression during an economic recession, provoked a radical change in her work,"[18] she turned to painting less frivolous subject matter in the same style. She painted a number of Madonnas and turbaned women inspired by Renaissance paintings, as well as mournful subjects such as The Mother Superior (1935), an image of a nun with a tear rolling down her cheek, and Escape (1940), which depicts refugees.[44] Of these, art historian Gilles Néret wrote, "The baroness's more 'virtuous' subjects are, it must be said, lacking in conviction when compared with the sophisticated and gallant works on which her former glory had been founded."[45] Lempicka introduced elements of Surrealism in paintings such as Surrealist Hand (c. 1947) and in some of her still lifes, such as The Key (1946). Between 1953 and the early 1960s, Lempicka painted hard-edged abstractions that bear a stylistic similarity to the Purism of the 1920s.[46] Her last works, painted in warm tones with a palette knife, have usually been considered her least successful.[46][45]
Personal life
Lempicka placed high value on working to produce her own fortune, famously saying, "There are no miracles, there is only what you make." She took this personal success and created a hedonistic lifestyle for herself, accompanied by intense love affairs within high society.[47]
Her daughter Kizette rarely saw Lempicka, but was immortalized in her paintings. Lempicka painted her repeatedly, creating a striking portrait series: Kizette in Pink (1926), Kizette on the Balcony (1927), Kizette Sleeping (1934), Portrait of Baroness Kizette (1954–1955), among others. Some of Lempicka's other paintings depict women who resemble Kizette.
Bisexuality
Lempicka was
Legacy
American singer
Other notable Lempicka collectors include actor Jack Nicholson and singer-actress Barbra Streisand.[52]
Robert Dassanowsky's book Telegrams from the Metropole: Selected Poems 1980–1998 includes the poems "Tamara de Lempicka" and "La Donna d'Oro" dedicated to Kizette de Lempicka.
Lempicka's paintings are featured on the UK book covers of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.[53][54]
On 16 May 2018, in celebration of the 120th anniversary of her birth, Google made her the subject of the daily Google Doodle.[55]
In July 2018, a biographical musical, Lempicka, premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.[56][57] The show later played at the La Jolla Playhouse, and is scheduled to open on Broadway on April 14, 2024 with previews starting on March 19, starring Eden Espinosa as Lempicka, directed by Tony winner Rachel Chavkin.[58]
From September 2022 until March 2023, the
In January 2023, Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based, multistate restaurant company, named its first specialized event space The Lempicka to acknowledge the influence of her aesthetic on the interior design of its restaurants.[60] The center opened in June 2023.[61]
Art market
In November 2019 the Lempicka painting La Tunique rose (1927)[62] was sold at Sotheby's for $13.4 million.[63] In February 2020, her painting Portrait of Marjorie Ferry (1932) set a record for a work by Lempicka by fetching £16.3 million ($21.2 million) at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie's, London.[64]
Gallery
-
The Musician, 1929[65]
-
La Dormeuse, 1930[66]
-
Adam and Eve, 1932
Notes
- ^ Warsaw was then part of Congress Poland, under the control of the Russian Empire.
References
Citations
- ^ Her full name according to Claridge (1999), p. 10; and Mori (2011), p. 22. Biographies by De Lempicka-Foxhall & Phillips (1987), Néret (2000), Blondel, Brugger, and Gronberg (2004), and Bade (2006) also give her birth name as Tamara; some other sources say her birth name was Maria (e.g., Helena Reckitt, The Art of Feminism: Images that Shaped the Fight for Equality, 1857–2017, 2018, p. 84.
- ^ a b c d Néret (2016), pp. 27–31.
- ^ a b Commire (2002).
- ^ MacCarthy, Fiona (15 May 2004). "The good old naughty days". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- ^ a b Wróblewska, Magdalena. "Tamara de Lempicka". Culture.pl. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- ^ Vincent, Glyn (24 October 1999). "Glitter Art". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- S2CID 234191873. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ Sylwia Zientek (8 March 2022). "Tamara Łempicka: dziesięć nieznanych faktów na jej temat". Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ Claridge & Lempicka (1999), pp. 15, 377.
- ^ "The tomb of the Dekler family in the database of Jewish tombstones in Poland". Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Néret (2016), p. 93.
- ^ Claridge & Lempicka (1999), p. 44.
- ^ a b Claridge & Lempicka (1999), pp. 39–40, 53.
- ^ a b Henderson (2005), pp. 106–109.
- ^ Blondel, Brugger & Gronberg (2004), p. 131.
- ^ Bade (2006), p. 27.
- ^ Blondel, Brugger & Gronberg (2004), p. 17.
- ^ ISBN 978-2-08-020370-0.
- ^ Mori (2011), p. 379.
- ^ a b Lempicka-Foxhall (1987), p. 58.
- ^ Noreen (2016), p. 93.
- ^ Néret (2016), p. 75.
- ^ Architectures modernes; L'atelier de Mme de Lempicka, Georges Rémon, January 1931, Mobilier et Décoration.
- ^ Lempicka-Foxhall (1987), p. 77.
- ^ Néret (2016), p. 7.
- ^ Vogel, Carol (5 May 2004). "Modern Art Does Well As Auction Season Opens". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
- ^ Bade (2006), p. 99.
- ^ Adler, 4/2001, 31[full citation needed]
- ^ Claridge & Lempicka (1999), p. 281.
- ^ Mori (2011), pp. 322, 324.
- ^ López, Tomas (2 August 2009). "Tamara de Lempicka y Víctor Contreras: una amistad interminable" [Tamara de Lempicka and Víctor Contreras: An Endless Friendship]. oem.com.mx (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ "Tamara de Lempicka. 1972–1980". delempicka.org. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
- ^ "Tamara de Lempicka (1898–1980)". www.christies.com.
- ^ Blondel, Brugger & Gronberg (2004), p. 137.
- ^ "Tamara de Lempicka". Franco Maria Ricci Editore. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
- ^ Review of Tamara in New York Times dated 3 December 1987[full citation needed]
- ^ "'The Last Nude': A Passionate Portrait of an Artist and Her Muse". NPR. 31 December 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- ^ "2013 Stonewall book awards announced". Archived from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b Lempicka-Foxhall (1987), p. 52.
- ^ Néret (2016), p. 21.
- ISBN 978-0714878775.
- ^ Weidemann, Larass & Klier (2008).
- ^ Bade (2006), p. 184.
- ^ Bade (2006), pp. 103–104, 113.
- ^ a b Néret (2016), p. 71.
- ^ a b Bade (2006), p. 119.
- ^ Brady, Helen (26 June 2013). "The Raucous Life of Tamara de Lempicka: An Art Deco Icon". The Culture Trip. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
- ^ Blondel & Brugger (2004), pp. 34, 42–43.
- ^ "Famous GLTB". Archived from the original on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2006..
- ^ "Lempicka, Tamara de (1898?–1980)". Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2007..
- ^ Cross (2007), p. 47.
- ^ Art, R.-atencio (12 October 2011). "Madonna, Barbra Streisand, & Jack Nicholson Collect Her". Retrieved 17 May 2018.
- ^ Atlas Shrugged. Penguin Books. February 2007.
- ^ The Fountainhead. Penguin Books. February 2007.
- ^ "What to Know About Art Deco Artist Tamara de Lempicka". Time. 16 May 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- Boston Globe. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ^ Levitt, Hayley (14 July 2018). "Eden Espinosa and Carmen Cusack Belt About Art and Love in Lempicka". Theatermania. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
- ^ "'Lempicka' Musical Starring Eden Espinosa Sets Spring 2024 Broadway Opening". IMDb. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "Łempicka". Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- ^ "Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment unveils downtown private event space the Lempicka by Jeff Ruby". Retrieved 6 January 2023.
- ^ "A new event venue, the Lempicka by Jeff Ruby, marks its debut downtown". Retrieved 27 June 2023.
- ^ "Tamara de Lempicka | LA TUNIQUE ROSE (1927) | MutualArt". www.mutualart.com.
- ^ Westerby, Nick (14 November 2019). "Łempicka painting goes for eye-watering $13millioin at Sotheby's Auction". The First News. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
- ^ "Tamara de Lempicka (1898–1980)". Retrieved 6 February 2020.
- ^ "Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980). La Musicienne". christies.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
- ^ "Tamara de Lempicka. LA DORMEUSE". sothebys.com. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
Sources
- Aldrich, Robert & Wotherspoon, Garry, eds. (2002). Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History from Antiquity to World War II. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-15983-8.
- Bade, Patrick (2006). Tamara de Lempicka. New York: Parkstone Press. ISBN 978-1-85995-903-9.
- Birnbaum, Paula (2011). Women Artists in Interwar France: Framing Femininities. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-6978-4.
- Blondel, Alain (1999). Tamara de Lempicka: a Catalogue Raisonné 1921–1980. Lausanne: Editions Acatos.
- Blondel, Alain; Brugger, Ingried & Gronberg, Tag (2004). Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon. Royal Academy of Arts. ISBN 978-1-903973-43-1.
- Blondel, Alain & Lempicka, Tamara de (2004). Tamara de Lempicka: Catalogue Raisonné 1921–1979. London: Royal Academy Books.
- Claridge, Laura P. & Lempicka, Tamara de (1999). Tamara de Lempicka: A Life of Deco and Decadence. Clarkson Potter. pp. 15, 377. ISBN 978-0517705575.
- Commire, Anne, ed. (2002). "Lempicka, Tamara de (1898–1980)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
- Cross, Mary (2007). Madonna: A Biography. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-33811-3.
- Grosenick, Uta & Becker, Ilka (2001). Women artists in the 20th and 21st century. Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8228-5854-7.
- Henderson, Andrea, ed. (1998). "de Lempicka, Tamara". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 24 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Gale Research.
- Lempicka-Foxhall, Kizette (1987). Phillips, Charles (ed.). Passion by Design: The Art and Times of Tamara de Lempicka. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 9780789205032.
- Mackrell, Judith (2013). Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation. ISBN 978-0-330-52952-5.
- Mori, Gioia (2006). Tamara de Lempicka (exh. cat. ed. Milan, Palazzo Reale). Milan: Skira.
- Mori, Gioia (2006). Tamara de Lempicka. La Regina del Moderno (exh. cat. ed. Rome, Complesso del Vittoriano) (in Italian). Milan: Skira.
- Mori, Gioia (2011). Tamara de Lempicka the Queen of Modern: [exposition, Roma, Complesso del Vittoriano, 11 March – 10 July 2011]. Milano: Skira. ISBN 9788857209319.
- Néret, Gilles (2016). Tamara de Lempicka: 1898–1980, déesse de l'ère automobile [Tamara de Lempicka : 1898–1980, goddess of the automobile era] (in French). Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-3225-9.
- Weidemann, Christiane; Larass, Petra & Klier, Melanie (2008). 50 Women Artists You Should Know. Prestel. ISBN 978-3-7913-3956-6.
External links
- Tamara Łempicka (Tamara De Lempicka), Culture.pl
- Tamara Łempicka's Art Deco Legacy, Culture.pl
- 14 Most Expensive Auctioned Artworks from Poland, Culture.pl