Passion by Design: The Art and Times of Tamara De Lempicka

by Baroness Kizette De Lempicka-Foxhall, Charles Phillips (Collaborator), Tamara De Lempicka (Illustrator)

Tamara de Lempicka captured the whirlwind decade of the 1920s on canvas, painting (and charming) the rich and famous of Europe in Art Deco portraits.
The threat of a second world war sent Tamara packing to America, where she reveled among the famous in Hollywood and the wealthy of New York, In the 1970s she was rediscovered when a gallery owner in Paris mounted a retrospective of her work, and today paintings that were unsellable for three decades fetch many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Much of the story of de Lempicka's amazing life is told in moving detail by her daughter, whose recollections are amplified by anecdotes from others who knew the artist. The is illustrated by dozens of photographs from Tamara's personal album and by 50 full-color reproductions of her evocative paintings.

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction, Art History, Gay, Memoir

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Alarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much like Lempicka’s early art, not so much her creations after 1960. But she had quite a wild life between extremes of wealth and poverty, fame and threat of war. She was at times playful and entertaining and at other times tyrannical. Naturally many people, men especially, loved her. She was dramatically beautiful. Many other people, especially in her later years, found her a big pain. This biography and art history combined was full of drama. I gave it four stars, not so much for Tamara’s life, but for the fine, clear writing of her granddaughter who composed it. It was also charming to have an Introduction by great-granddaughter Marissa de Lempicka, complete with family photos of visits to great grandmother’s mansion.

[Terence]

7 out of 10 for the artwork.

As with my recent review of Dorothea Tanning, I was more interested in looking at the artwork rather than learning anything about the artist so I didn't follow the text all that much.

However, I did enjoy Lempicka's style, and she's become a new artist on my "like" list.

[Acolvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mediocre biography about an artist I've been intrigued with for a long time, the book speaks more about the personal idiosyncrasies of a self-centered woman than it does about her painting. It's interesting as a reference to the time in history that produced upheaval in Russia and Europe with the rise of the rise of socialism and what that did to society and art. It's also interesting as a narrow reference to what was occurring in art and design, namely art deco. But mostly it's an example of a person bent on satisfying a luxurious lifestyle and selfish ambition, and those who willingly participated and/or were victims of it along the way.

[Aurelie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a phenomenal account of Tamara de Lempicka’s life with gorgeous reproductions of her paintings in color on high-quality paper. Initially I was wary of the book because it was written by a relative but the main biography of Lempicka was too full of minute details that made reading that other book a slog so I decided to give “Passion by design” a try. I cannot recommend it enough. It is a clear-eyed account of Tamara de Lempicka’s life including both her talent and her flaws and I would give it six stars out of five if I could.

[Chance Nix · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, I am not an artist. I can't even draw stick figures, but man I enjoyed view Tamara's work and reading about her life. She was an independent woman before it was cool to be one. She played life the way she wanted and you have to love that about her. If you are a fan of ART DECO, the roaring 20's, or just real life badass women, then you will love this.

[Michael Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the artist's daughter (well, told to Charles Phillips!), this is a fascinating insight into the life of one of those artists you'll either love or hate. I've always been quite a fan of her work, particularly her striking portraits, and this has a lot of details about her life that I didn't know about. A good read, whether you like reading artists biographies or not.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up on an impulse at a museum store because I was so struck by one of the portraits reprinted within. It wound up being such a surprisingly fun, amazing vicarious pleasure. Outrageous, glamorous, and just thoroughly interesting.

[Beata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Co za życie!

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adventurous life, big personality, and beautiful artist 🎨!

[Kara Bender · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book! What a woman! The images were gorgeous and the book was very fun to read, what a wild ride!

[Ross Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of the artist's life with little time spent on who she really was, and even less on her art. One would think that the daughter of the artist would have more to say, even if she was more or less abandoned by her mother, who chose instead to live the jet-set life after having lost her status post-Russian Revolution.

Lempicka is a fascinating artist, but there's no discussion of her art here, though to be fair, there are a lot of nice reproductions. The bio feels very cursory about the period when she's most productive and has more details about her early life and her post-fame era than you might expect, at least in comparison.

[Dolores]

for the glamorous art-deco artista in you! lots of garden variety dysfunction underneath an exterior of wealth...

[Claudine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting biography of the artist, but frankly, I thought that the novel about her life, The Last Nude, was much more entertaining.