Lempicka

by Patrick Bade

The smoothly metallic portraits, nudes and still lifes of Tamara de Lempicka encapsulate the spirit of Art Deco and the Jazz Age, and reflect the elegant and hedonistic life-style of a wealthy, glamorous and privileged elite in Paris between the two World Wars. Combining a formidable classical technique with elements borrowed from Cubism, de Lempicka's art represented the ultimate in fashionable modernity while looking back for inspiration to such master portraitists as Ingres and Bronzino. This book celebrates the sleek and streamlined beauty of her best work in the 1920s and 30s. It traces the extraordinary life story of this talented and glamorous woman from turn of the century Poland and Tsarist Russia, through to her glorious years in Paris and the long years of decline and neglect in America, until her triumphant rediscovery in the 1970s when her portraits gained iconic status and world-wide popularity.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography

207 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2005

Reviews

[Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lempicka By Patrick Bade: A biography of the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka a very important artist of the twentieth century who often painted a edgy feminine empowerment, a blending of elegance and social realism of Germanic new objectivity in bold flat colors fem-fatales with predatory unsmiling gazes dressed in bra roque folds of satin like shinny clothes standing in front of futuristic cubistic cityscapes. Lempicka herself was very much a polyglot upper class hedonistic and snobbish woman she had a great influence in art and fashion during the 20’s and 30’s and has become even more famous and fashionable over time. Perhaps the most famous lesbian artist of all time although she loved both sexes it seems women were her favorite subjects and were often painted in suggesting or sexually overt poses. I’m interested in studying her work to inform my own painting and might at some later date attempt my own homage by doing a copy of one of her many portrait but that is neither here nor there as far as this book review is concerned I wanted to know more about her work life and motivation and this book provided me with that very well four stars.

[Benjamin Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to the life and work of Tamara De Lempicka, but I could not shake the feeling that the author does not think much of her or her oeuvre, he shows De Lempicka in not the best of lights to say the least. She is portrayed as a spoiled, rich and superficial artist, and that may be the case, but it is kind of annoying to be reminded so constantly and vehemently.

[GJC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Saw a great documentary about her and wanted to delve a bit deeper.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This quick overview of Lempicka's life and work emphasizes her main themes and techniques, as well as her influences and motivations. One of the most revealing aspects of the book is the set of descriptions of "master works," which highlight works of interest rather than only those that were her best. The accompanying reproductions serve to illustrate the author's conclusions about her development as an artist--that she sprang to life as a creative force that combined commercial imagery and financially beneficial portraiture with the aesthetics of an age, featuring superficial beauty rather than depth, and then falling out of fashion as her style no longer gibed with the times.