Tamara de Lempicka’s Sensual Modernity Captured in Retrospective

Tamara de Lempicka, born in Warsaw in 1898, lived through the end of the 19th century and the flowering of the 20th, traveling extensively across Italy, France, Switzerland, and Russia. At age 20, during the Russian Revolution, she married and began exhibiting her work, which later reached France as the Belle Époque waned. Her distinctive portraits of female bodies and their shadows—both inner and those formed by encounters with the world—are instantly recognizable. The artist’s sensual style attracted Gabriele D’Annunzio, who invited her to the Vittoriale and became obsessed with her. She later moved to America, where new influences shaped her avant-garde vision. The article highlights her ability to capture the evolving corporeality of her era, with works like "The Straw Hat" (1930), "The Girls" (1930), and "The Sleeper" (1932) exemplifying her approach. De Lempicka described her goal as living and creating in a way that imprints the mark of modern times on both her life and work.