TAMARA DE LEMPICKA

Tamara de Lempicka is maybe the best known female artist of our times, but she was actually quite recently rediscovered thanks to a big Parisian exhibition in 1972.

For the occasion all her young years paintings, belonging to the Deco period between the two wars, were sold and her name became once again known to everybody, just as it used to be on the European society pages of the first half of the 20th century.

Born in Moscow from polish family sometimes towards the end of the 19th century, the exact date is unknown, as she never wanted to declare it; she fled to Paris because of the Bolshevik revolution.

Together with her first husband she started studying the art of painting with masters like M Denis.

Her female bodies are built with geometrical structure and a nearly sculptural -monumental framework.

They have a very original imprint, formed on the untamable and proud nature of the artist herself and they all seem to live of the same emotion: a mix of pride, sensuality but especially strength and firmness.

An elegant and uninhibited woman always dressed with designer clothes, with lovers of both sexes to whom she was often dedicating beautiful portraits.

She spent many holidays in Italy where she attempted to portray D Annunzio.

The poet, as he used to, asked her to give herself to him in exchange, but Tamara was too independent to accept such blackmailing.

She welcomed his gifts, such as a gorgeous topaz ring he had her delivered to Milano by a messenger on a white horse, but she disdained the alcove of the by then old seducer.

In the 1940s she moved to the States with her second husband and finally to Mexico living on the edge of the artistic avant –guard to regain international fame at the age of eighty.

At her death in 1980, according to her last whish, her ashes were scattered on the Volcano Popocatepetl.

Louis Vuitton autumn/winter 2009/2010 advertising campaign, featuring Madonna (one of the painter principal collectors) as the testimonial, is inspired by her paintings and style.