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why is the Polish painter being celebrated on her 120th birthday?


Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), the Polish artist whose bold Art Deco style so perfectly captured the spirit of the Jazz Age, was born 120 years ago today.

She is the subject of Google's latest Doodle, which foregrounds the high-fashion flappers, shiny new automobiles and orchids that became instantly recognisable motifs in her own work.

"I live life in the margins of society, and the rules of normal society don’t apply to those who live on the fringe," she said of herself.

Born Maria Gorksa in Warsaw, the future "Baroness of the Brush" was the daughter of Russian Jewish attorney Boris Gurwik-Gorski and socialite Malvina Decler.

She painted her first portrait in pastels aged just 10, a younger sister posing for her, before attending boarding school in Laussane, Switzerland, an experience she detested.

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Leaving to tour Italy with her grandmother, it was here that Tamara first developed a fascination with Renaissance painting.

Completing her formal education, however reluctantly, she swiftly met and fell for Polish lawyer Tadeusz Lempicki, the pair marrying in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1916.

A year later Lempicki was arrested by the Cheka following the Russian Revolution and the couple were forced to leave for Copenhagen, ultimately taking refuge in Paris.

Selling family jewelry to make ends meet, Lempicka gave birth to a daughter, Kizette, then turned to painting professionally to make ends meet, practising with portraits of the infant and a neighbour.

After studying under Maurice Denis and Andre Lhote at the Academie de la Grand Chaumiere, her breakthrough came when her work was exhibited at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, where she was spotted by American fashion journalists from Harper's Bazaar.

Exhibiting in Milan, Italy, she met the Italian poet and soldier Gabriele d'Annunzio, whose portrait she hoped to paint, though he was rather more intent on seducing her than sitting still.

In 1928, as her reputation continued to grow, she divorced Tadeusz and became the mistress of Baron Raoul Kuffner, an art collector who had commissioned her to paint his then-girlfriend Nana de Herrera, a Spanish dancer. Tamara undertook the project with malice and produced an unflattering result, taking Herrera's place and eventually marrying Baron Kuffner in Zurich in 1934.

Her self-portrait, Tamara in a Green Bugatti, was instantly iconic when it appeared on the cover of German fashion magazine Die Dame in 1929.

Her first American show at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh was a hit but the proceeds were immediately wiped out by the Wall Street Crash. By now her international reputation was assured anyway and she spent the 1930s painting such celebrities as King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Queen Elizabeth of Greece, her idiosyncratic post-Cubist/neoclassical style much in demand.

Settling permanently in Los Angeles with the outbreak of the Second World War having sold off Baron Kuffner's properties in Hungary for fear of the Nazis, Tamara and her husband remained popular socialites but changing times saw her work fall out of fashion, overtaken by abstract expressionism.

Baron Kuffner died of a heart attack aboard an ocean liner in 1961 and De Lempicka retired to Houston, Texas, with Kizette and her husband, a geologist.

Tamara de Lempicka lived out her final years in Cuernavaca, Mexico, the final destination in an extraordinarily well-travelled life, passing away in her sleep on 18 March 1980. She remains forever associated with the glamour and opulence of the Roaring Twenties, her work conveying the excitement of the age on canvas as distinctively as F Scott Fitzgerald had in prose.


THE glamorous painter Tamara de Lempicka thrilled the world in the 1920s and 30s with her bold works of art and was dubbed "The Baroness with a Brush".

A Google Doodle is celebrating the iconic Pole on what would have been her 120th birthday – here is her story.

Getty - Contributor Glamorous Tamara de Lempicka was nicknamed "The Baronness with a Brush"

Who was Tamara de Lempicka?

Tamara de Lempicka was born Maria Górska on May 16, 1898, in Warsaw, Poland.

The daughter of a Russian Jewish lawyer and a Polish socialite, she made her first portrait of her younger sister at the age of 10.

Her love of art blossomed when she spent a summer in Italy with her grandmother, developing a love for the Italian Renaissance painters.

She travelled to Saint Petersburg in 1915 to visit a wealthy aunt following her parents' divorce, where she fell in love with Tadeusz Łempicki – they married the following year.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 made Lempicka and her husband refugees, and they fled from St Petersburg to Paris where the rest of her husband's family had sought refuge.

It was there that she began her formal artistic training at the height of post-cubism.

Google The Google Doodle marking Lempicka on her 120th birthday

She went on to document the 1920s in a truly unique style, blending elements of refined cubism with neoclassical elements.

Lempicka divorced Tadeusz in 1928 and met Baron Raoul Kuffner, becoming his mistress.

They went on to marry in 1934 following the death of his first wife, and her new position led to the coining of the nickname "The Baroness with a Brush".

It was in the 1930s that Lempicka's career reached its peak, and she developed a penchant for glamorous celebrity portraits and her highly stylised nudes.

Getty - Contributor Lempicka's career reached its glamorous peak in the 1930s

During this period she painted the likes of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Queen Elizabeth of Greece.

Following the outbreak of World War II, the couple moved to the USA, settling first in Beverly Hills and later in New York.

Baron Kuffner died in 1961 after suffering a heart attack on an ocean liner, and his widow sold many of her possessions and travelled the world by ship.

In 1963 Lempicka moved to Houston, Texas, to be with her only child, a daughter called Kizette from her first marriage.

The artist later moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she died in her sleep on March 18, 1980 – she was 81 years old.

Getty - Contributor Lempicka's love of art was honed as a teenager on a trip to Italy

What is a Google Doodle?

In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.

The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.

Google Google celebrated the Autumn Equinox with a themed doodle

In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.

Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.

Among the Doodles published in in 2017 were ones commemorating German scientist Robert Koch, Jan Ingenhousz (who discovered photosynthesis) and the 50th anniversary of kids coding languages being introduced.

Earlier in the year, the search giant celebrated the 2017 Autumn Equinox , which marked the official ending of summer and the coming of autumn.


Google

Boy, this artist lived in a cool period of time.

Wednesday's Google Doodle pays homage to Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka, known for portraits of larger-than-life people in the Roaring Twenties, on what would be her 120th birthday.

Born in Warsaw, Poland in 1898, Lempicka became an art lover at an early age when she spent a summer with her grandmother in Italy and fell in love with great Italian Renaissance painters.

She moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, when her parents divorced, and there she got married before moving to Paris amid the beginning of the Russian revolution. She found herself in a city at the height of post-Cubism and began formal training as an artist under the influence of French painters Maurice Denis and André Lhote.

Lempicka's work included tributes to the Roaring Twenties in her unique style that blended refined cubist styles with late neoclassical. In particular she's known for portraits of artists, stars and aristocrats, who populated the exotic and luxurious art world she lived in.

Lempicka died March 18, 1980, aged 81.


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Today's Google homepage honours Art Deco artist Tamara de Lempicka made a career out of subverting expectations and in doing so, developed her distinct style.

The Polish painter was born in Warsaw, 120 years ago in 1898,

Her love for art started at an early age - as a young child, she spent a summer in Italy with her grandmother, who inspired her love for great Italian Renaissance painters.

When her parents divorced, she was sent to live with her wealthy aunt in Russia.

It was during this time that Lempicka was exposed to the lives of nobility as well as her future husband, Tadeusz Lempicki.

(Image: GOOGLE)

Shortly after their marriage, the Russian Revolution began and Lempicka, now a refugee, moved from St. Petersburg to Paris.

It was there, at the height of post-cubism, where she began her formal artistic training under the influence of French painters Maurice Denis and André Lhote.

(Image: Getty Images)

Taking in her grandiose and decorative surroundings, Lempicka went on to produce exquisite tributes to the Roaring Twenties in her own unique way, utilising a blend of late neoclassical and refined cubist styles in her art.

Her affinity for the luxurious also led her to fixate on portraits of artists, stars, and aristocrats, which coupled with her considerable charm and exotic lifestyle, lit up the art world and social circles of the period.

(Image: Press Association)

Today’s Doodle was created by artist Matthew Cruickshank, who paid homage to Lempicka’s unique style.

He said: “Few artists embodied the exuberant roaring twenties more than polish artist Tamara de Lempicka.

(Image: Press Association)

"Her fast paced, opulent lifestyle manifests itself perfectly into the stylized Art-Deco subjects she celebrated in her paintings.

"I first encountered Lempicka's work at her Royal Academy show in London, 2004. I was struck by the scale and skill of her paintings coupled with her life (as colorful as her work!).

(Image: Press Association)

"I chose to place a portrait of Lempicka in my design with accompanying motifs evocative of the roaring 20's and 30's.

"It's no easy feat to recreate any artists work - but I hope to have done so here.”

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