Alexandra Epps delivered another memorable lecture, about Tamara de Lempicka the Art Deco Diva who re invented herself so many times in order to survive.
Born in Warsaw around the time of 1898 into a life of privilege, she went on art tours with her grandmother as a young girl and wintered in Petrograd. Whilst there she absorbed the culture which influenced her art. In 1916 she married a lawyer but when the Bolsheviks took over, she had to flee to Paris with her daughter. In order to survive they initially lived off the proceeds of the sale of jewellery she took with them. She trained as an artist under the guidance of Andre Lhote who was a pioneer of Cubism, and his influence can be seen in “Rhythm” painted in 1924. The figures have longer more sweeping backs than Lhote produced, and she has softened them using light across their bodies in a similar way to Caravaggio. “The Pink Tunic” is of a woman looking at the viewer, supposedly waking up to her own sexuality, in the style of Raphael.
In Milan she painted portraits of men including “Marquis D’Afflitto” with a tiny waist, broad shoulders and in a similar pose to Botticelli’s “Mars.” Her famous “Auto Portrait” of herself driving a green Bugatti with her initials on displays her steel eyes possibly signifying determination as driving at that time was considered to be a male activity.
She had many affairs with both men and women, such as Suzy Solidor who was the first female owner of a Parisian nightclub. She displayed Tamara’s paintings on the stage and so more of her portraits were sold. Her painting of the Duchesse de la Salle in 1926 in a riding habit shows a very different kind of woman from other portraits of the time and her silhouette was used in an advert for Gitanes.
Her first husband left her, and she later settled in New York as a baroness where she painted more in the Baroque style. A magazine article written about her in 1967 rekindled interest in her work and her designs were used on paperback book covers. Armani dedicated a fashion show to her, and she modelled for Van Cleef and Arpels. In 2019 a painting of hers sold for 22 million dollars.