English
Until the 10th of July, the Complesso del Vittoriano Museum in Rome is showing “The Queen of the Modern,” which is organised around the work of the artist and figure most famous within the modernism movement of the 20s and 30s: Tamara Lempicka.
The exhibition was commissioned by Lempicka expert Gioia Mori, and comprises of 90 paintings, 30 drawings, and 50 photographs which belong to private and public collections from all round the world. There is also documentary footage depicting the era, and the artistic scene. The show has been supported and sponsored by museums National Varsovia, Malraux in Le Havre, des Beaux Arts in Nantes, Blanton Museum of Art in Austin and the Musee d’Art Moderne de Saint Etienne Métropole.
Many of the works in the exhibition have never been shown before – such as the five paintings belonging to the private collection of Jack Nicholson, and another from 1923 which has only been seen before in black and white photos.
Tamara Lempicka was born in Varsovia in 1898. The daughter of a wealthy Polish family, she developed an ease with fitting in with the great salons of the era, and socialising with the bourgeoisie and artists of the time. She married lawyer Tedeusz Lempicki in St Petersburg, but the October Revolution forced them to uproot to Holland, where she assumed a liberal, open lifestyle, and took up with young lovers, bringing an end to the marriage – though the couple didn´t actually separate until many years later in Paris.
Paris changed things for Lempicka. It transformed her tastes, relationships and her interests – and it was there that she decided to take painting classes with André Lothe, and began to show in various galleries, which welcomed her Art Deco style. Her first prize was at the Bordeaux International Exhibition in 1927.
Lempicka´s bisexual preferences brought an end to her marriage, and led to a love affair with a member of the European nobility, and collector of her work, Raoul Kuffner. These were the glory years of parties, money and friendships with the likes of Greta Garbo and Andre Gide. Years of play and experimentation with sex, and cocaine on the bank of the Seine were a part of daily life. Kuffner took Lempicka over to New York, where she became a guestlist regular at the parties of the bourgeoisie, attending orgies, and generally immersing herself in the bohemian and art worlds. However, at this point, her work was yet to be recognised in its own right.
Lempicka´s best known work is the series of portraits of notorious characters of the European nobility and bourgeoisie of the 1930s, which came to define her persona as somebody who loved the good life, and enjoyed her sexuality, with both men and women. Tamara Lempicka died in Cuernavaca in 1980, and her ashes were scattered in the Popocatepetl Volcano.
For more information http://www.delempicka.org/
Nancy Guzman
If you are enjoying a well-deserved break in apartments in Rome why not go down to the Complesso Vittoriano Museum, and find out all about the extraordinary life of this woman, who broke with the social norms, and was the inspiration for Madonna´s Vogue video.
Translated by: Poppy
