Tamara de Lempicka
Biography1898 - 1980
About the artist
Tamara de Lempicka was a Polish Art Deco painter who was strongly influenced by Cubism. Lempicka became a key artist in the Art Deco style and was favoured by Hollywood stars. She was also able to display her paintings in numerous important salons because of her network of friends.
When she went to Italy in 1911, she first saw the Great Italian Masters. She married in 1916, when she was only 18 years old, with a lawyer. She wanted to make her one fortune and was obsessed with personal success. Lempicka's artistic style started at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière. She did not like Impressionists, thought they drew badly and employed had colors. Lempicka's technique would be novel, clean, precise, and elegant.
For her first show in Milan in 1925, she painted 28 works in six months, and in that same year the work 'Autoportrait' for the Die Dame, a German fashion magazine. She would become extremely successful after this exhibition, which led her work to be highly valued. Tamara de Lempicka lived a bohemian life, espacially during the '20s. She was openly bisexual and had scandalous affairs with both men and women. She also made multiple nude studies during this period of time. She divorced from her husband in 1931, after he had already left her in 1927.
Lempicka painted her only child Kizette numerous times, although she almost never saw her in real life. Notable examples of these portraits are for instance 'Kizette on the Balcony' and 'Kizette in Pink'. In 1927, Lempicka won the first prize at the Exposition Internationale des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux for the painting 'Kizette on the Balcony.
Lempicka continued both her work as an artist and her extreme lifestyle the next few years. She painted King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Queen Elizabeth of Greece in the early '30s. Museums started collecting her works. Around that time, she traveled to Chicago where she worked alongside Georgia O'Keeffe and Willem de Kooning. After the Second World war, her work was not well received, which led Lempicka to never to show her work again.
Her works are still highly valued and internationally renowned and can be found in some of the world's most famous museums.
When she went to Italy in 1911, she first saw the Great Italian Masters. She married in 1916, when she was only 18 years old, with a lawyer. She wanted to make her one fortune and was obsessed with personal success. Lempicka's artistic style started at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière. She did not like Impressionists, thought they drew badly and employed had colors. Lempicka's technique would be novel, clean, precise, and elegant.
For her first show in Milan in 1925, she painted 28 works in six months, and in that same year the work 'Autoportrait' for the Die Dame, a German fashion magazine. She would become extremely successful after this exhibition, which led her work to be highly valued. Tamara de Lempicka lived a bohemian life, espacially during the '20s. She was openly bisexual and had scandalous affairs with both men and women. She also made multiple nude studies during this period of time. She divorced from her husband in 1931, after he had already left her in 1927.
Lempicka painted her only child Kizette numerous times, although she almost never saw her in real life. Notable examples of these portraits are for instance 'Kizette on the Balcony' and 'Kizette in Pink'. In 1927, Lempicka won the first prize at the Exposition Internationale des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux for the painting 'Kizette on the Balcony.
Lempicka continued both her work as an artist and her extreme lifestyle the next few years. She painted King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Queen Elizabeth of Greece in the early '30s. Museums started collecting her works. Around that time, she traveled to Chicago where she worked alongside Georgia O'Keeffe and Willem de Kooning. After the Second World war, her work was not well received, which led Lempicka to never to show her work again.
Her works are still highly valued and internationally renowned and can be found in some of the world's most famous museums.
