Alain Blondel — TAMARA DE LEMPICKA, Art Deco Icon

, royal academy of arts, 2004 Hardcover, dusjacket 215 x 290mm, 143 pages, 131 color illustrations. ISBN 9781903973424. Tamara de Lempicka's distinctive painting style and subject matter perfectly matched her glamorous lifestyle and glittering social circle. With their trademark juxtaposition of rounded forms and angular architectural lines and shapes, her highly mannered portraits reflected the 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. Published to accompany the first exhibition in Britain dedicated to this extraordinary woman's oeuvre, this catalogue concentrates on her most productive and recognised period, between 1922 and 1935. These heady years saw her immortalise the atmosphere of wealth and decadence for which Paris had become famous between the wars. Newly written texts investigate the background to her life and her art, and numerous colour illustrations of her key works confirm her reputation as one of the most iconic painters of her generation.