The Iconic and Bold Artistic Legacy of Tamara de Lempicka
### The First Major US Retrospective of Tamara de Lempicka at the de Young Museum
**SAN FRANCISCO —** Tamara de Lempicka’s star is shining brightly once again, as the de Young Museum hosts the first major US retrospective of this groundbreaking artist. Best known for her distinctively cinematic and glamorous works that merge Cubism, Futurism, and Art Deco, Lempicka’s art captures both the turbulence and the alluring modernism of the early 20th century. An enigmatic figure who moved through Russia, France, the United States, and Mexico, Lempicka’s art evokes a world filled with sensuality, pride, and style, laying claim to places both traditionally feminine and boldly transgressive.
This extensive exhibition, featuring over 120 works, is not merely a survey of her oeuvre; it is an exploration of her artistry, personal life, and the different worlds in which she sought to thrive. It emphasizes Lempicka’s unique contribution to modernism, not only as an artist but also as a cultural icon whose art and persona continue to resonate today.
### Building Her Legacy
Curated by Furio Rinaldi and Gioia Mori, this significant exhibition began almost serendipitously. While attempting to acquire a drawing of Lempicka’s daughter for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 2021, Rinaldi realized how underrepresented Lempicka’s work was within the American museum circuit. No major US institution owned any purchased pieces of her work (those that existed were donated), and none had mounted a comprehensive retrospective. This gap in the representation of Lempicka’s art in the US led to the conception of this monumental exhibition.
Lempicka’s influence is without a doubt soaring. In recent years, her cultural and aesthetic relevance received renewed interest—culminating in a current Broadway production about her life and a documentary film. In an era of reassessing the role of women in art history, especially female pioneers, this exhibition is expertly timed. Lempicka, with her bisexuality, artistic audacity, and resistance to conventional gender roles, presents a fascinating figure whose life and work mirror today’s cultural conversations on diversity and empowerment.
### Lempicka’s Cinematic Aesthetic
As you step into the exhibition, you’re greeted by a larger-than-life photograph of the artist herself—a visual reminder that Lempicka’s beauty, elegance, and sense of celebrity were intrinsic to her art. The self-presentation as an early Hollywood-style starlet draws parallels with icons such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, with whom she shared the same magnetic charisma. It’s no coincidence that Hollywood has long claimed her legacy, with major celebrities like Anjelica Huston, Barbra Streisand, and Madonna being collectors and fans of her art.
Lempicka’s technique is as alluring as her public persona, employing smooth, angular lines drawn from both synthetic Cubism and Italian Renaissance Mannerism. Jean-Dominique Ingres’ sensuality finds its way into her depictions of women, while the cool, geometric precision of her compositions evokes modernity. Yet, there’s a warmth beneath the surface—a tangible sense of desire and admiration—especially in her depictions of women.
### Uncomfortable Beauty
Yet, Lempicka’s works, for all their beauty, are not without their complications. Her trademark portraits, particularly of square-shouldered men and statuesque women in urban settings, give off a somewhat chilling vibe, recalling the philosophical undertones of Ayn Rand’s *Atlas Shrugged.* Her painting of her husband, “Portrait of a Man (Thadeusz Łempicki)” (1928), even served as the cover art for Rand’s novel, leading some to draw unsettling aesthetic connections between Lempicka and the Objectivist ideology that celebrates self-interest and elitism.
Susan Sontag’s essay “Fascinating Fascism,” which critiques how beauty can mask authoritarian ideology, lingers in the background of the exhibition. While Lempicka was far from a fascist—fleeing from Hitler with her Jewish heritage—her championing of individualism and perfection in form flirts with the aesthetics of power and control. Whether intentional or not, echoes of this tension manifest in her paintings, posing a riddle for the viewer: Is Lempicka celebrating artistic autonomy or crafting idealized subjects with darker undertones?
### Religion Through a Lempicka Lens
Another facet of Lempicka’s work, which resonates less strongly with some, is her engagement with Christian iconography. Portraits like “Mother Superior” (1935) and “Sainte Thérèse d’Avila” (1930) reference Biblical and religious figures, but remain more shiny and decorative than deeply soulful. Her religious portraits blend Art Deco’s grandeur with the theatricality of early cinema.
For many of these works, religion seems less a contemplative subject and