Tamara DeLempicka

Tamara De Lempicka (1894-1980)  was a Polish/American artist known for her iconic Art Deco style portraits and still-lifes. Lempicka was born Maria Górska in Warsaw, Poland on May 16 although some say she was born in Moscow, Russia. Born to a wealthy family, she was allowed to pursue art as many women of her time were not. age 14 she was attending school in Lausanne, Switzerland. In after Russia and Germany declared war in 1914, Lempicka fell in love with a lawyer named Taduesz Lempicki and they soon married. They were forced out of Poland by political turmoil during World War I, and they settled in Paris where she was able to build a career as an artist, something very rare in the 1920s. 

Lempicka eventually made her way to the US. In September 1941, Tamara de Lempicka went to San Francisco for her first solo exhibition at a local art gallery organized by New York art dealer Julien Levy. The noteworthy exhibition was held at the Courvoisier Gallery , formerly at 133 Geary Street. The term Art Deco was coined in 1925 at the International Exposition of Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris. It refers to a modern style which encompases strong lines, the use of black as well as bold, primary colors. Art Deco gained popularity in the 1920s and was used in architecture, art, design, clothing, and household items. First emerging in Europe, especially in France, during the period between World War I and World War II, Art Deco was an international movement including to the U.S.. As an artist who helped defined the style. In 1978 Lempicka moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico where she lived and worked until her death.

Her work was recently featured in the first major museum retrospective of Lempicka’s work in the United States at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco and highlights the artist’s distinctive style and unconventional life through 4 major periods of work. With more than 100 artworks in the show, drawings and paintings range from nudes, portraits, post-Cubist work in 1920s Paris — to paintings from her final days in the United States and Mexico. 

(Photo: “Portrait of Ira P.” 1930. Oil on panel, 39 3/8 x 25 9/16 inches Courtesy DeYoung)