de Lempicka studies

Lately I have been reading about Tamara de Lempicka. I knew very little about her story or her art work except for recognizing a few images. Well actually I have had this on going interest in turn of the century feminist, such as Lee Miller and others so its not surprising that I latched onto a book about de Lempicka. I am not really sure that you would call them feminist, that does not interest me, but these female avant-garde artist, photographers and film stars are so often overlooked and they all lead such bold yet sometimes tragic lifestyles.

That day in the library I was looking for a book on Berthe Morisot (pre-turn of the century) but ran across two books, one on de Lempicka simply titled 'Lempicka' and one on or including the great-great granddaughter of Morisot titled 'Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionist'. A book which stopped me in my tracks when I saw the granddaughter's picture on the cover. I subsequently learned this happens to everyone, as well as the author, who has Manet's images of Morisot etched in their subconscious and is confronted with the granddaughter's gaze, more on that later. I knew very little about de Lempicka so I began reading it first and quickly fell 'slave' to her art and personal story. I carried the book around for weeks. Her painting entitled "The Slave" (1929) gave me the imagery and the idea for the illumination 'Slave....darkness boxed in Light', likewise her "Madonna" (1937) has made it to my drafting table and I am working on a pencil study after it hoping to do an illumination of it as well. There are many portrait photographs of de Lempicka in the book along side her art work, actually she is stated as saying that all of her paintings and drawings are self modeled. The one that impacted me to sketch the above pen study was photographed in 1928, 'Lempicka Seated' Studio Lorelle. The modernist air and lighting gave me the sense of placing a nimbus behind her. I have done this before with the Frida Kahlo drawing, something just draws me into these spiritual portrayals of the female. I have also been working on one of the before mentioned Lee Miller, but also for Dorothea Tanning and Sharon Tate(?).

MS2008