Tamara De Lempicka: Catalogue Raisonne 1921-1979 [Hardcover]

Alain Blondel (Author), Tamara De Lempicka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

Tamara de Lempicka's distinctive painting style was as glamorous as her subject matter-the writers, aristocrats, artists, and entertainers of Paris in the age of Art Deco. Born in Poland, De Lempicka (1898-1980) created highly mannered portraits using a trademark combination of soft, rounded forms set against architectural lines and shapes, reflecting the new sophisticated urbanity of her sitters. Capturing the nascent modernist spirit, her bold technique and palette rapidly won her acclaim as the quintessential Art Deco artist.

This book, published to accompany an exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts, concentrates on this extraordinary artist's most productive and recognized period, between 1922 and 1935, during which time her brand of Synthetic Cubism brilliantly captured the atmosphere of wealth and decadence for which Paris had become famous. Some 60 major works, superbly reproduced in lush color, confirm De Lempicka's reputation as one of the most iconic painters of her generation, and establish her place within the modern movement.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Those eyes, those lips, that hair! Tamara de Lempicka captured the imagination with these trademark features in her distinctive paintings of Parisian glitterati in the 1920s and 1930s. Her combination of sensuously modeled, rounded forms with machine-age architectural shapes in society portraits propelled her to acclaim as the definitive Parisian art deco painter. An escapee from Bolshevik Russia, she studied with Maurice Denis and Andre Lhote in Paris, quickly fusing synthetic neo-cubism with influences from sixteenth-century Italian classicism. A 1925 exhibit in Milan thrust her into high society there and in Paris, where she worked from eight until five, doing three sittings daily and painting most of her great portraits in three weeks or less, aided by her perceptive psychological analysis of her subjects. Commentaries by Alain Blondel, Ingried Brugger, and Tag Gronberg complement the many photos and luscious full-color reproductions that give "gorgeous" new meaning and make this a must-have art book for strong twentieth-century and women's art collections. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Alain Blondel is the author of Tamara de Lempicka's catalogue raisonné. Ingried Brugger is the director of the Kunstforum, Vienna. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 500 pages
• Publisher: Acatos Pub (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2940033285
• ISBN-13: 978-2940033287
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 10.2 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,918,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe I'm crazy, May 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Tamara De Lempicka: Catalogue Raisonne 1921-1979 (Hardcover)

I adore Tamara's work and have for years. I've read about her, but it was frustrating because the books all seemed to show the same handful of paintings over and over. I thought I was crazy spending this much money on a book (never spent this much before and will probably never spend this much again). But I've owned it now for a couple of years and I never regretted buying it! This book shows me the complete works of Tamara. I've looked at the pictures over and over. If you really like Tamara's work - ie: she is your all time favorite artist - then buy this book. Buy it at full price or buy it second hand (make sure all the pages are there). You'll see how she painted when she started out and how her work evolved until her death. I have been able to experience that process as a viewer with this book and that was what was important to me.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Career Retrospective, October 10, 2004

By 

Continental Op "philmarlowe39" (San Clemente, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tamara de Lempicka (Hardcover)

"Tamara de Lempicka: Art Deco Icon" is the companion book for the 2004-05 exhibitions of her work at the Royal Academy in London and the Kunstforum Wien in Vienna.

You'll usually find de Lempicka's work scattered about in various Art Deco collection books or exhibits, but a career retrospective on her impressive work and long, colorful, peripatetic life is truly a rare thing.

De Lempicka's slick style of portraiture embodied the glamor, style, modernity and sexuality of the Art Deco period that was fashionable during the inter-war years. Like Art Deco itself, her work fell out of favor during the 1940s and 50s, only to be resurrected in subsequent decades as the public's interest in the art of the inter-war period reemerged.

Compiling such an anthology is clearly a labor of love for the authors. Alain Blondel, Ingried Brugger and Tag Gronberg do an excellent job presenting and analyzing de Lempicka's portfolio, as well as illustrating her stature in the world of 20th Century art. De Lempicka's influences (Picasso, Lhote), her art, her loves, her vanity and her travels from czarist Warsaw to bohemian Paris to glamorous Hollywood are all discussed in these pages as well.

This book is a must-buy for de Lempicka enthusiasts and I also recommend it to anyone interested in Art Deco in general. It also makes a terrific gift for anyone interested in painting, particularly portrait painting.