Tamara de Lempicka Polish, 1898-1980

Tamara de Lempicka was a Polish-born painter active in Paris and the U.S. in the 1920s and 30s. She was born Tamara Gorska in Warsaw to wealthy family, and fled to Paris during the 1917 Russian Revolution. In 1916 she married Tadeusz Lempicki, a Russian lawyer and socialite, which initiated a lifestyle that would inform her body of work. While living in the French capitol throughout the 1920s, she became an integral part of the bohemian scene and was acquainted with Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, and André Gide.

Her paintings are influenced by Fernand Léger's Cubism, but her streamlined and designed figuration sets her apart. These qualities gives her work an Art Deco appeal, which she conveyed through her paintings of decadent celebrities and socialites. Her subject matter consisted of portraits, erotic nudes, and still lifes of calla lilies. She received considerable acclaim for her oeuvre, and became a social celebrity, famed for her aloof attitude, her lavish parties, and her love affairs with both women and men.

In 1939 she moved to the U.S. with her second husband, Baron Raoul Huffner, recreating her artistic and social success in Hollywood and New York. Today, her work is collected by many celebrities, including Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and Barbara Streisand. Lempicka died on March 18, 1980 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.