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PaperCity_Houston_December_2020_with_insert

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amazing how powerful it is. That is her most iconic work — the one that everybody recognizes, even if they don't know her name. On what remains. Marisa: In the archives, are sketches of flowers and two people kissing from 1908. She had amazing draftsmanship. And we have some abstracts. We have a pencil drawing from 1972, when she was 74 years old. From Mexico, we have beautiful watercolors of the people and peasants. She admired their lives. She loved the colors of Mexico, the yellows and the bright pinks and purples and blues. The last few years, she repainted some of her most famous paintings: La Belle Rafaëla, Andromeda, Saint Anthony. She wanted to relive the most famous time of her life. We have personal items she carried with her through all these moves: St. Petersburg, Paris, Hollywood, Houston. Photographs in a leather book. Tamara's favorite [photographic] portraits, a swatch of blonde hair — we don't know whose it is — jewelry, the ring [poet and playboy] Gabriele d'Annunzio gave her that she wore her entire life. Hats, gloves, cool little reading glasses. Her paints, palettes, brushes, personal notes, notes from her friends from school. Victoria: It's amazing to me because she never seemed to be sentimental at all. I was astonished to find those things. Marisa: We are trying to make sure that we leave the archives behind to share with the world. We need help to make sure these papers don't disintegrate, that the photographs are well archived, that her clothes are well-kept. I have no children, and my sister has no children, so when we're gone, we want to make sure the archives are in a place where people can study them. Establishing the Tamara de Lempicka Foundation. Marisa: I felt I had to make my own path, my own career. I started a business, I worked in hotel management, traveled, and for the last few years, I worked in the entertainment industry. And then mom needed help with the archives because it's so much work. We have emails from curators who want to do exhibitions, from fans, and people that want to do products. I felt I finally had the experience through my corporate work and negotiating international deals, to help her. Victoria: We still have the copyrights for her images. The copyright is for 70 years after the death of the artist, so we have 30 more years. There have been 13 major Tamara de Lempicka exhibitions throughout the world, and I've been the spokesperson for the media for each of these. People so often ask the same question, as to why Tamara is important. And I say, if she had copied what other famous artists were doing, we wouldn't be here talking about her today. No matter what medium of art you work in, you must find your personal voice if you want to ever transcend. She was proud of that. She said, "My goal is to never copy. Create a new style, clear luminous colors and feel the elegance of the models. From a hundred pictures, mine will always stand out." This is a bit of a message to creative people. There has never been a museum retrospective of Tamara's works in the United States. It's a shame. T he classic de Lempicka biography was updated and reprinted in 2020, Passion by Design, first published in 1987 by Abbeville Press, seven years after the artist's death, and written by her only child, the late Baroness Kizette de Lempicka- Foxhall. The new version has been updated by the artist's great granddaughter Marisa de Lempicka, with insights from Tamara's granddaughter Victoria de Lempicka. The book exercises the tumultuous, dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship, which came to its head in Houston, and reads not so much as a tell-all by a disgruntled daughter, but as a tantalizing narrative that lays out the essential Tamara in unflinching yet surprisingly sympathetic detail. Also in the works is a documentary submitted to Sundance, a play set to premiere in Manhattan, a slate of European exhibitions, a new collection of fashion merchandise, and most importantly, the establishment of the Tamara de Lempicka Foundation. Together, this mother-daughter duo, Victoria and Marisa de Lempicka, is forging ahead on the family-led foundation to carry on Tamara's memory and art-world legacy, while seeking to fund creative endeavors for other women who, like the artist, have struck out on their own. Find de Lempicka updates at TamaraDeLempickaEstate.com. The artist in evening attire, 1929 Tamara de Lempicka in Houston, 1966 (Tamara de Lempicka, continued from page 75) Darrell DaviDson, Houston CHroniCle 96

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