Art Deco was introduced in the 1920’s and reigned through the 1930’s, encompassing both the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression. It is an elegant style of decorative art and architecture reflective of Art Nouveau, yet with more modern sophistication. Art Deco features sleek straight lines and an element of boldness.The movement affected city styles, architecture, high fashion, jewelry, commercial printmaking, and interior design, and embraced lifestyles of hedonism, indulgence and mass consumption. The term Art Deco was not coined until the 1960’s by Bevis Hillier, a British historian and critic. Notable Art Deco buildings include the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, The Chrysler Building, and the Midland Grand Hotel.
Tamara de Lempicka
Tamara de Lempicka is maybe on of the most famous painters of the Art Deco period. Lempicka was born in Poland and then proceeded to move to Russia where she lived until her husband was arrested by the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution. She helped to release him and then they fled to Paris. This is where she learned to paint, enrolling at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere and studying privately. Partially facilitated by her spare simple style, she was quite a prolific artist and was much sought after as a portrait artist. If you are interested in learning more about Tamara deLempicka I highly recommend checking out the 'Passion by Design' by her daughter, Kizette deLempicka-Foxhall. Works by Tamara de Lempicka include:
Young Girl With Gloves
Printemps
Portrait of Doctor Boucard
Amethyste
Mother Superior
Portrait of Pierre de Montaut
Girl Sleeping
Portrait of Grand Duke Gabriel (ca. 1927) (87K) Private Collection
Portrait of Marjorie Ferry (ca. 1927) (62K) Private Collection
Portrait of Madame Boucard (1931) (80K) Collection Boucard, Paris
Adam and Eve (ca. 1932) (56K) Petit Palais, Geneva
Auto-Portrait (Tamara in the Green Bugatti) (1925) (59K) Private Collection
Portrait of Madame M. (1933) (71K) Private Collection, Paris
Portrait d'Homme inacheve (Unfinished portrait of Tadeusz de Lempicki) (1928) (41K) Musee Georges Pompidou, Paris
Portrait of the Dutchess de la Salle (1925) (49K) Collection of Alain Blondel, Paris
Calla Lilies (1941) (81K) Private Collection, California
The Refugees (1937) (46K) Musee d'Art et d'Historie, Saint Denis
Romana de la Salle (1929) (77K)
Portrait of Ira P. (65K) Private Collection
