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She studied painting with Maurice Denis and André Lhote. Her style was a blend of late, refined cubism and the neoclassical style, particularly inspired by the work of Jean-Dominique Ingres. [8] She was an active participant in the artistic and social life of Paris between the wars.
- Who Was Tamara de Lempicka?
- Rise to Fame
- Personal Scandals
- Lempicka's Decline Amid Abstract Expressionism
- Resurgence and Legacy
- Frequently Asked Questions
Tamara de Lempicka (whose birth name is Maria Gorska) was born on May 16, 1898 in Warsaw, Poland to a Russian Jewish lawyer, Boris Gurwik-Gorski, and a Polish socialite, Malvina Decler. She was exposed to the arts early on and began painting when she was 10, at which point she created a portrait of her younger sister. After a brief time in boarding...
In preparation for her first major exhibition in Milan in 1925, Lempicka hurriedly created 28 paintings over the course of 6 months. Her hard work paid off, and she soon started showing her work in some of the most exclusive galleries in Europe. Her first real brush with fame occurred after she exhibited at the International Exhibition of Modern De...
During her time in 1920s Paris, Lempicka became notorious for her wild parties and her insatiable sexual appetite for both men and women. When she worked, she painted portraits of the rich and famous, including Queen Elizabeth of Greece, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, and Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio. Due to her “scandalous” lifestyle, her husband...
Lempicka married her second husband, Baron Kuffner, in 1933. In 1939, just before World War II, the couple settled permanently in the United States, first in Los Angeles, then in Beverly Hills. Lempicka continued down the path of success and earned her way by painting the portraits of many of Hollywood's stars. However, after the War, society's tas...
Interest in Lempicka’s artwork began to revive in the 1970s after the 1972 retrospective exhibition, Tamara de Lempicka from 1925-1935, at the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris. Now, almost 40 years after her death in 1980, her work has become extremely sought after—especially among celebrities. Jack Nicholson, Barbara Streisand, and Madonna are some o...
Who was Tamara de Lempicka?
Tamara de Lempicka was a Polish Art Deco painter best known for her self-portraits and paintings of glamorous women.
Who was Tamara de Lempicka inspired by?
Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka was inspired by Renaissance artists, Cubism, as well as Mannerism.
- May 16, 1898 (Warsaw, Poland)
- Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Górska
- March 18, 1980 (Cuernavaca, Mexico)
- Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti)
Tamara de Lempicka was a 20th-century artist who created a unique painting style, often called ‘stylized cubism,’ who is perhaps best known for depicting the ideal woman of the 1920s: elegant, independent, modern, and sexually liberated.
Jan 29, 2020 · In the French capital she studied painting in the ateliers of Maurice Denis and André Lhote, and quickly found success. By the early 1920s her works were appearing in major Paris exhibitions, such as the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Tuileries.
In 1929 she painted her iconic work Auto-Portrait, generally known as Tamara de Lempicka’s Green Bugatti, for the cover of the German fashion magazine Die Dame. The painting shows de Lempicka at the wheel of a Bugatti racing car, wearing a Bugatti leather helmet, gloves and wrapped in a grey scarf.
- 17 min
In both her life and her art, Tamara de Lempicka offered a new image of the modern woman: part jazz-age femme fatale, libertine and social climber, and part canny self-promoter, self-styled experimental artist and astute cultural and historical prognosticator.
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Learn the turbulent story of the “Baroness with a brush”, and how it shaped her iconic Art Deco portrait paintings of glamor, privilege, and performance. Tamara de Lempicka told stories of inter-war high society through bold, shimmering portraits.
