{"id":119404,"date":"2025-05-16T07:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=119404"},"modified":"2025-05-16T08:57:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T12:57:38","slug":"tamara-de-lempickas-sexy-art-deco-stare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=119404","title":{"rendered":"“I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don\u2018t apply to those who live on the fringe.” — Tamara de Lempicka"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Spoken like a true exile of Jewish descent. <\/p>\n

For her birthday today: <\/p>\n

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\n“Self Portrait in the green Bugatti”<\/p>\n

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\nFascinating woman<\/a>, to say the least. Just a snippet from her teen years, okay?<\/p>\n

In 1912, her parents divorced and Maria went to live with her wealthy Aunt Stefa in St. Petersberg, Russia. When her mother remarried, she became determined to break away to a life of her own. In 1913, at the age of fifteen, while attending the opera, Maria spotted the man she became determined to marry. She promoted her campaign through her well-connected uncle and in 1916 she married Tadeusz Lempicki in St. Petersburg; a well-known ladies man, gadabout, and lawyer by title, who was tempted by the significant dowry.<\/p>\n

In 1917, during the Russian Revolution, Tadeusz was arrested in the dead of night by the Bolsheviks. Maria searched the prisons for him and after several weeks, with the help of the Swedish consul, she secured his release. They traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark then London, England and finally to Paris, France to where Maria’s family had also escaped, along with numerous upper-class Russian refugees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nTip of the iceberg. More here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And still more<\/a>. She’s having “a year”. Camille Paglia deserves some credit, in my eyes, for including a chapter on Lempicka in her book Glittering Images<\/i>, which is how I got into her work. (From the article: “In 2020 her ‘Portrait of Marjorie Ferry,’ a jazz chanteuse, set a new auction record for the artist, fetching almost $22 million.”) So yeah. Her time is now. <\/p>\n

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\n “My goal: never copy. Create a new style, with luminous and brilliant colors, rediscover the elegance of my models.”
\n— Tamara de Lempicka<\/big>
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\nThank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account<\/a>. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0<\/a>, if you’d like to subscribe.<\/em> <\/small><\/p>\n