Tamara de Lempicka
Polish Art Deco painterKnown for her distinctive bold style, sometimes referred to as "soft cubism"
Early Years / Family Life
Tamara de Lempicka, born Maria Gorska, was born into a wealthy and prominent family. Her father, Borys Gurwik-Gorski, was a Jewish merchant and her mother, Malvina Dekler, was a socialite from a family of wealthy Polish bankers. As a child, Tamara was known as self-willed and domineering.Education
boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland 1918 / Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Montparnasse - studied under Maurice Denis and Andre LhoteInfluences
Pablo PicassoMaurice Denis
Andre Lhote
cubism
Themes in Artwork
high societyelegance
portraits
Timeline
- 1898 / born on May 16 in Moscow - although she liked to say to she was born in Warsaw, Poland
- 1912 / parents divorce
- 1916 / marries a lawyer named Tadeusz Lempicki in St. Petersburg, Russia
- 1916 / gives birth to a daughter, Maria Krystyna, also known as Kizette
- 1918 / studies under Maurice Denis and Andre Lhote at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Montparnasse
- 1917 / Tadeusz is arrested by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution
- 1923 / begins showing work at galleries in Paris
- 1924 / work is shown at the Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes in Paris
- 1925 / first major show in Milan- in preparation she painted 28 new works in 6 months
- 1928 / divorces Tadeusz
- 1929 / first traveled to the United States to paint a commissioned portrait and to arrange a show of her work at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh
- 1933 / marries the Baron Raoul Kuffner
- 1939 / moves to Beverly Hills, California with the Baron
- 1943 / moves to New York City
- 1960 / changes style to abstract, begins painting with palette knife
- 1962 / the Baron dies of a heart attack
- 1978 / moves to Cuernavaca, Mexico
- 1980 / dies in her sleep on March 18 in Mexico
Examples of Work
Self Portrait / 1925 / oil on canvas / 35 x 26 cm
The Musician / 1929 / oil on canvas / 161 x 96 cm
Dr. Boucard / 1929 / oil on canvas / 135 x 75 cm