Tamara de Lempicka - In the Style of Noir

Tamara de Lempicka - Self-Portrait in the Green Bugatti, 1925, oil on wood, private collection (click photo for larger image)Tamara de Lempicka - Portrait of Tadeusz de Lempicki (Portrait of the Artist's Husband), unfinished, 1928, oil on canvas, Musée National d'Art Moderne, ParisPolish American painter Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) is best known for her Art Deco-styled portraits. Sexy, bedroom-eyed women in stylish dress are rendered in haunting poses--and her compositions are not unlike those found on the Film Noir movie posters of the period. She studied painting at the Academe de la Grand Chaumiere, and was privately tutored by artist Maurice Denis.

In 1925, she exhibited her works at the first Art Deco show in Paris. She moved to America in 1939 and her works appeared exclusively at many galleries and museums.

In 1960, she changed her style to abstract art and began creating works with a spatula. But this wasn’t what the public wanted from Lempicka. After her husband died in 1962, she stopped painting altogether and moved to Mexico. Tamara was "the first woman artist to be a glamour star" - as can be seen in her photograph here. Her distinctive and bold artistic style developed quickly and epitomized the cool yet sensual side of the Art Deco movement.

Tamara de Lempicka is one of my favorite painters--but I doubt that she would have been one of my favorite people! She was notoriously snobbish, selfish and difficult. She immortalized her daughter, Kizette, in painting more than once--but spent very little time with her. The child’s grandmother was so angry with Tamara at one point--for disappointing Kizette by not coming home for Christmas--that she burned Tamara’s entire collection of costly hats--while Kizette looked on!