Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka(1898–1980), who was active in France and the US during the period between the two World Wars and beyond, is largely forgotten in art history books. She combined elements of the Cubist and Neo-Classical styles to create stylized portraits of wealthy patrons and aristocrats, still lifes, and abstracted nudes during the Art Deco era.
Lempicka’s social life in Parisian literary and artistic circles, her love of wine, cocaine, and cigarettes, and her then-controversial extramarital affairs with men and women were as well-known as her artistic output.
Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka(1898–1980), which explores the life, work, and times of Polish painter.
After her passing, famous people like Barbra Streisand, Madonna, and Jack Nicholson became interested in her paintings. In 2004, a retrospective of her paintings was shown at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and in 2020, her 1932 portrait of Marjorie Ferry sold for $21.2 million, making it one of the ten most expensive pieces of art by a woman ever to be sold at auction.
She is now the focus of Carson Kreitzer’s (book, lyrics, and original concept) and Matt Gould’s (book and music) brand-new musical Lempicka, which spans the decades of her life, art, and times.
Espinosa, Eden. Evan Zimmerman and Matthew Murphy took the picture.
The older Lempicka, shown in the framing technique of a memory play, is shown sitting alone on a park bench in Los Angeles in 1975, feeling “Unseen,” wondering, “How did I end up here?” and “Do you know who I am?” Under the energetic direction of Rachel Chavkin, a featured cast of eight and an ensemble of ten tell us, belting out 22 songs in a variety of styles, from pop to show tune, ballad to torch song, painting a portrait in a fast-paced chronology of the turbulent historical events of the 20th century, her unwavering devotion to her art, and her troubled personal relationships, subtly revealing at the beginning of the go-back story that she loved twice.
Sadly, both simultaneously (none of which had a happy ending).
Inspired by the Eiffel Tower, Riccardo Hernández created a modernist multi-level openwork metal set that shifts from Poland to Paris. Peter Nigrini’s projections identify the years, locales, and socio-political turmoil, and they also provide details about the artist’s paintings—which are strangely absent from the numerous empty picture frames and easels at which she paints.
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Bradley King’s linear Deco-style neon lights and focused spotlights, and Paloma Young’s costumes define the characters, the It the socially conscious Lempicka was born into and later married (to the collector and lawyer Tadeusz Lempicki, who first supported her profession).
Andrew Samonsky and Eden Espinosa. Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman took the picture.
Playing the title role, Eden Espinosa embodies the contradictory and self-absorbed character of Lempicka, who goes to great lengths, including giving up her body and diamonds, to free her husband from the grip of Bolshevik revolutionaries. However, she spends more time in her studio than with her husband, takes a prostitute for a lover in Rafaela, her model and muse, and refuses to go back to Poland with him.
Broadway’s Longacre Theatre is home to the extravagant new musical “Lempicka,” which explores the life, work, and times of Polish painter.
