The enlightening and inclusive retrospective of 20th century Art Deco icon Tamara de Lempicka (1894-1980) is now premiering at San Francisco’s de Young Museum. And it’s an exciting reexamination of Lempicka, who had been previously considered by some a niche art deco illustrator and artist. Although her most recognized images were done in the 1920s — portraits of the wealthy and highly stylized paintings of nudes, this exhibit encourages the viewer to appreciate the greater breadth of her talent.
The de Young exhibit is a chronologically arranged display of over 120 images, with some rarely seen drawings, experimental still lifes, dark domestic scenes, and a selection of Art Deco objects, sculptures, and period dresses from the Museum’s collection. The exhibition is co-curated by Furio Rinaldi and Gioia Mori.
The show also allows the viewer to examine the career of an extraordinary woman artist whose life took many different turns while she endured the stormiest years of the 20th century. The girl who came to call herself Tamara de Lempicka was born in Warsaw as Tamara Rosa Hurwitz. In 1915, in Saint Petersburg, she met, fell in love, and married a prominent Polish lawyer, Tadeusz Łempicki (1888–1951), a portrait of whom is on exhibit at the de Young. The Russian Revolution ended their comfortable life in November 1917, and they fled, finally finding refuge in Paris.
The family’s need for money led her to study painting, for which she always had talent. Among her first paintings were still lifes and portraits of her daughter Kizette (whom she later called her little sister). The picture of Kizette, “Young Girl in Pink,” on exhibit shows the artist’s smooth Art Deco style, which she described as “clear and finished…. with a delicate brush.” She said she was searching for technique, simplicity, and good taste. She aimed to create a new style with luminous and brilliant colors to rediscover her models’ elegance.
As openly bisexual, Lempicka thrived in cosmopolitan 1920s Paris and joined lesbian and bisexual women in writing and in artistic circles, including Vita Sackville-West and Colette. She began a lesbian relationship with poet Ira Perrot. The several powerful portraits of Perrot are some of her best efforts.
In 1928, she was divorced from Tadeusz Łempicki and met Raoul Kuffner, a baron of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and an art collector, whom she later married. As the Nazi regime invaded Europe in 1939, Lempicka and her husband moved to the United States, and she painted celebrity portraits, as well as still lifes. During her time in the United States, Lempicka lived in Beverly Hills and New York City and continued to work and exhibit her works with limited success. She later lived with her daughter Kizette in Houston, having never reclaimed her early fame. She died in her home in Mexico in 1980, just when her rediscovery was beginning.
Lempicka’s oeuvre includes paintings with cubist and neoclassical influences, as well as her Art Deco style. To show the viewers Lempicka’s influences, the labels of several portraits display small illustrations of Italian Renaissance paintings with similar motifs. Generally, the Museum’s detailed labels, audio tour, wall chat information, and printed catalog improve one’s enjoyment of this show.
And there is a new documentary film on Lempicka, “The True Story of Tamara de Lempicka & The Art of Survival” https://www.tamaradoc.com/ making the rounds and festivals and theaters.
By Emily S. Mendel
emilymendel@gmail.com
© Emily S. Mendel 2024 All Rights Reserved
