Tamara de Lempicka
Seoul 2017
Seoul Arts Center, South Korea
10th Decemeber 2016 – March 2017
Seoul Arts Center
South Korea
www.sac.or.kr/eng/
Tamara and Seoul
by Victoria de Lempicka, President Tamara Art Heritage
Tamara de Lempicka (16 May 1898 – 18 March 1980)
Following remarkably successful exhibits in Japan, London, Vienna, San Francisco, Paris and Galicia as well as Rome in 1994, Milan in 2006, Turin 2015, Verona 2015, Rome 2011, Japan 2010, it is a great honor to present to a our new South Korean public the works of Tamara de Lempicka.
We are grateful to the insightful books, articles and plays of: Alain Blondel expert in Tamara de Lempicka Art and writer of her Catalog Raisonne; Bruno Duprè writer of Si Tu Veux une vie, vole-la!; Franco Maria Ricci, writer Tamara de Lempicka: With the Journal of Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Housekeeper; Marilyn Goldberg of Museum Masters expert in Tamara de Lempicka art and representative of her estate, Tamara Art Heritage; Victor Forbes of Fine Arts magazine; Gioia Mori, curator who have written exhibition catalogs in Italy; Kara Wilson, artist and actress who performed Deco Diva a one-woman stage play based on Lempicka’s life; Ellis Avery’s novel “The Last Nude” which won The American Library Association Stonewall book award 2013; Robert Dassanowsky’s book Telegrams from the Metropole Poland – selected poems 1980 to 1988 include the poems “Tamara de Lempicka” and “La Donna D’Oro” dedicated to Kizette Lempicka; Baroness Kizette de Lempicka-Foxhall Author of Passion by Design: The Art and Times of Tamara De Lempicka – in collaboration with Charles Phillips.
A polyglot woman of the world, Tamara spoke Polish, Russian, French, German, English, Italian and was learning Spanish. She often mixed Italian and Spanish with her devoted household staff in Tres Bambus her villa in Cuernavaca. She would ask them to set the “tavola”, on the “terrazza” so we could dine with a view of Popocatepetl bringing vividly to our memory the majestic beauty and as well the profound sadness wrought by another volcano: Mount Vesuvius.
The Volcano in Cuernavaca reminded her of “Hallasan” the highest mountain in South Korea with a designated National Park.
Celebrity Icon of Art Deco
by Marilyn Goldberg
Having been involved in the arts and major estates throughout my lifetime, starting with Picasso, Dali, Warhol, Haring, and many exhibitions of the old masters (Monet, Van Gogh, Klimt, to name a few), I received a call in the early 1980’s from William Webber; a Greenwich Village, NY art dealer who represented my estate artists at assorted exhibition and trade shows.
His words were: “Marilyn, you must meet Kizette Lempicka-Foxhall, the daughter of Tamara de Lempicka. There is an archive of work that has intrigued me for years and the works have never been cared for or promoted the way I know only you can do.” Awestruck by the beauty and power of her work, I proceeded full steam ahead into learning all I could about this wonderful, yet unheralded and forgotten artist.
Tamara de Lempicka pioneered an elegant yet erotic vision of life in the “Flapper era” as the new and self-confident woman came into being. Not only did she paint portraits of modern woman, she lived like one herself, changing aspects of femininity and masculinity. De Lempicka’s work is often inseparable from her life.
However, what should always remain the primary focus is the way in which she transformed artistic technique and form into revolutionary methods of representation in the Art Deco era.She paved the way for strong, successful and independent women symptomatic of their time. Along with contemporaries such as Coco Chanel and Simona de Beauvoir, Tamara de Lempicka redefined what it meant to be a woman and an artist.
Her heritage has been greatly appreciated by the South Koreans who have fought hard and long for recognition, as did she! Her legacy will live on through her spirited, original paintings.
It is my great honor to have spent time with Mr. Parks, and Dae Il Lee, of David Korea, planning this event to welcome Tamara de Lempicka and her worldwide collectors along with Tamara’s great granddaughter Marisa Doporto to South Korea!