Tamara de Lempika - Pinocotheque



Jeudi 18 Avril Tamara de Lempika - Pinocotheque

Yesterday was opening day of the Tamara de Lempika exhibit.  Always the best day to see any exhibit in Paris. I'm sure this one will soon be crowded. It's extensive and beautiful.

Some background on de Lempicka from Wikipedia:

Born into a wealthy and prominent family, her father was Boris Gurwik-Górski, a Polish lawyer, and her mother, the former Malvina Decler, a Polish socialite. Maria was the middle child with two siblings. She attended boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and spent the winter of 1911 with her grandmother in Italy and on the French Riviera, where she was treated to her first taste of the Great Masters of Italian painting. In 1912, her parents divorced, and Maria went to live with her wealthy Aunt Stefa in St. Petersburg, Russia. When her mother remarried, she became determined to break away to a life of her own. In 1913, at the age of fifteen, while attending the opera, Maria spotted the man she became determined to marry. She promoted her campaign through her well-connected uncle, and in 1916, she married Tadeusz Łempicki (1888–1951) in St. Petersburg—a well-known ladies' man, gadabout, and lawyer by title, who was tempted by the significant dowry. In 1917, during the Russian Revolution, Tadeusz was arrested in the dead of night by theBolsheviks. Maria searched the prisons for him, and after several weeks with the help of the Swedish consul, she secured his release. They traveled to Copenhagen then London and finally to Paris to where Maria's family had also escaped, along with numerous upper-class Russian refugees.

De Lampika said, "All my paintings are me". 

A strikingly attractive woman who made the most of herself playing up her dramatic angular features, she painted beaucoup self portraits. But her other portraits mirror her distinctive bone structure and elegant style.

Just around the corner from the Pinacotheque, Fauchon has the perfect afternoon snack/gouter with an Art Deco feel to it, the timely Aristofraise eclair don't you think?

In Paris de Lempika made a big splash early at just 26 winning recognition and awards at annual exhibitions with her unusual chiseled paintings. She came to know Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Andre Gide and other luminaries in the 20's.

Interestingly there are loads of preparatory drawings in the exhibition so often missing in retrospective exhibitions.

I was surprised by the portraits of children. De Lampika painted her own daughters often though she neglected them away from the canvas.

This darling child's portrait inspired me to try a blue bow on.

Bebe Elizabeth.

If you love Art Deco and the 20's this is a don't miss show.

De Lampika was independent not just on the canvas.

From Wikipedia: Famous for her libido, she was bisexual. Her affairs with both men and women were carried out in ways that were scandalous at the time. She often used formal and narrative elements in her portraits and nude studies to produce overpowering effects of desire and seduction. In the 1920s she became closely associated with lesbian and bisexual women in writing and artistic circles, such asViolet Trefusis, Vita Sackville-West, and Colette. She also became involved with Suzy Solidor, a night club singer at Boîte de Nuit, whom she later painted. Her husband eventually tired of their arrangement and abandoned her in 1927. They were divorced in 1931 in Paris.

In 1928, her longtime patron the Baron Raoul Kuffner von Diószeg (1886–1961) visited her studio and commissioned her to paint his mistress. De Lempicka finished the portrait, then took the mistress' place in the Baron's life and later married him becoming a Baroness. She travelled to the United States for the first time in 1929, to paint a commissioned portrait for Rufus Bush and to arrange a show of her work at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. The show went well but the money she earned was lost when the bank she used collapsed following the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

Quite a life and that's just a taste of it. De Lampika lived till 80. Though her paintings went out of style in the 40's, they're now are sought after.

The Pinocotheque is now closed.

An Art Deco balcon in my neighborhood that de Lempika would have approved of.