Tamara de Lempicka | de Young Museum | Oct 12–Feb 9, 2025

Tamara de Lempicka

October 12–February 9, 2025
Artist Retrospective 
Curated by Furio Rinaldi and Gioia Mori.
Image: Tamara de Lempicka Exhibition Entrance. de Young Museum, San Francisco.

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Overview

When I was a teenager growing up in the 1990s (pre-internet, I learned about these things from the LIBRARY), I was OBSESSED with the bohemian 1920s and 1930s.

Prohibition, Art Deco, JAZZ, the trailblazing artists and writers, all the ‘Bright Young Things.’ So when I heard the de Young Museum was planning a Tamara de Lempicka retrospective (THE FIRST IN THE UNITED STATES), my heart skipped a few.

Tamara de Lempicka at the de Young is beautifully curated by Furio Rinaldi and Gioia Mori, and features 150 works from the iconic artist.

Preview of  Tamara de Lempicka. de Young Museum, San Francisco.

I’m still going through the exhibition’s catalogue, a terrific read so far, also by Furio and Gioia, which features a preface by early Lempicka collector, Barbra Streisand. It is available for sale on Amazon and at FAMSF stores ($58.50 members).

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco created this great video (featured in the exhibition) filmed at the historic Paramount Theatre in Oakland, of Furio and Tamara’s great-granddaughter, Marisa de Lempicka, discussing her great-grandmother’s legacy.

FAMSF’s Tamara de Lempicka: The Making of an Art Deco Icon. de Young Museum, San Francisco.

The exhibition reveals Lempicka’s social media prowess a century before its existence. We learn in the catalogue, ‘She communicated with the public as if she were a movie star, through press releases, interviews about fashion, and articles about parties and cosmetics, which guaranteed her an international presence.’

Like many successful women of her time (Coco Chanel, Merle Oberon), the details of her past were shrouded in gray—much like the smoke-and-mirror effect of her paintings. Jewish from Poland, she presented as an aristocratic Russian Christian. She painted herself as if she was using one of today’s AI filters—nipping a few pounds here, a bit of a cheek lift there.

The standout works in the show are the Lempicka Sapphic nudes, which are TRULY STUNNING. She was openly bisexual at a time when a hint of anything else was taboo, embracing her identity with the same boldness seen in the avant-garde spirit of her art.

Also notable are the Georges Barbier illustrations featured in the exhibition, which were thrilling to see IRL, as I had only seen these online prior.

By the 1940s, Tamara de Lempicka’s paintings, characterized by her refined, stylized aesthetic and glamorized figures, fell out of favor as the opulence of the Art Deco era gave way to the austere, experimental movements of modernism and abstract expressionism.

A section of the retrospective includes works from her 1941 San Francisco show at the Courvoisier Galleries.

Tamara de Lempicka’s work enjoyed a significant resurgence after 1970, driven by a rekindled appreciation for the Art Deco era. Her striking, distinctive portraits were embraced by collectors, fashion icons, and pop culture alike, celebrated as timeless expressions of modern artistic excellence.

This is a MUST-SEE SHOW, as the majority of the works are on loan from private collectors. Opportunities to experience a Tamara de Lempicka retrospective in the U.S. are rare, and it may be many years before another comes along.

🗓 Tamara de Lempicka is on view until Feb 9, 2025 at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. It runs alongside some wonderful shows (see below), including About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift and Leilah Babirye: We Have a History.

✨ Also check out the terrific Mary Cassatt at Work exhibition (closes Jan 26, 2025) at FAMSF’s Legion of Honor.

💌 Did you see the show(s)? What did you think? Let us know in the comments (in the Reviews section located on the second tab at the top of the page).

QUICK GUIDE: de Young Museum

⭐ LEGION OF HONOR EXHIBITIONS:

• Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design (Closes May 11, 2025)
• Celebrating 100 Years at the Legion of Honor (Closes Nov 2, 2025)

Currently on View at FAMSF’s de Young Museum

Tamara de Lempicka | Oct 12–Feb 9, 2025

Tamara de Lempicka helped define Art Deco. This exhibition explores the painter’s distinctive style and unconventional life.

Leilah Babirye: We Have a History | June 22, 2024–Oct 26, 2025

Leilah Babirye’s first solo museum show in the US features expressive sculptures that speak to the power of reclaiming personal and cultural identity.

About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift | Aug 10, 2024–Nov 30, 2025

This installation highlights contemporary Bay Area artists, and explores themes of belonging, ecological stewardship, and social justice.

Contemporary Painting in Papua New Guinea: Mathias Kauage and His Family | March 30, 2024–March 15, 2026

This exhibition features boldly colorful paintings of a radically changing world by contemporary Papua New Guinea artist Mathias Kauage and his family.

Coming Soon to FAMSF’s de Young Museum

Matisse’s “Jazz” Unbound | Opens Jan 25, 2025

In the final decades of a prolific career, modern artist Henri Matisse (1869–1954) took up book illustration. This exhibition celebrates our 2024 acquisition of Jazz, Matisse’s 1947 artist book on the circus and theater. Jazz includes 20 color stencil prints (pochoirs) of popular subjects on these themes, from horses to ringmasters. The prints were created using the artist’s lively paper cutouts, what Matisse called “drawing with scissors.” Published by the innovative Greek publisher Tériade (Stratis Eleftheriadis), it is considered the pinnacle of Matisse’s graphic art. This presentation offers the rare chance to see the unbound works from Jazz in conversation with other Matisse artist books and works on paper from our collection.

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm | Opens March 1, 2025

Nearly 60 years after The Beatles performed their final concert at Candlestick Park, Beatlemania is back in the Bay. Featuring more than 250 personal photographs by Paul McCartney, along with video clips and archival materials, this exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes look at the meteoric rise of the world’s most celebrated band. The images capture the period from December 1963 through February 1964 and the band’s journey to superstardom, from local venues in Liverpool to The Ed Sullivan Show and worldwide acclaim. Photographs of screaming crowds and paparazzi show the sheer magnitude of the group’s fame and the cultural change they represented. More intimate images of the band on their days off highlight the humor and individuality of McCartney and bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Rediscovered in the artist’s personal archive in 2020, these images offer new perspectives on the band, their fans, and the early 1960s, as seen through the eyes of Paul McCartney.

Currently on View at FAMSF’s Legion of Honor

Mary Cassatt at Work | Legion of Honor | Oct 5–Jan 26, 2025 | A LOVE LETTER TO ART

Preview of Mary Cassatt at Work at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum. The retrospective closes Jan 26, 2025.

Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design | Nov 9, 2024–May 11, 2025

In celebration of the Legion of Honor’s 100th anniversary, this exhibition brings together some of our most outstanding costume and set designs.

Celebrating 100 Years at the Legion of Honor | Nov 9, 2024–Nov 2, 2025

This exhibition looks back to the museum’s 1924 opening through its 1990s expansion and into the present day, as well as forward toward a new vision for the future. The museum’s close ties to the communities of San Francisco are brought into focus through collection highlights, rediscovered materials from the museum’s archives, and an expansive timeline. Featuring some of the first additions to the collection, such as an ancient ceramic vase gifted by the queen of Greece and an Auguste Rodin sculpture donated by museum cofounder Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, the exhibition also highlights the museum’s early exhibitions, including one devoted to Diego Rivera. The timeline takes us through the decades, including the 1972 merger with the de Young, the seismic upgrade and expansion after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and recent interventions by contemporary artists such as Wangechi Mutu. The exhibition is punctuated by images of visitors through the years interacting with Rodin’s famous The Thinker (1904). Front and center in the museum’s courtyard, the sculpture continues to welcome visitors in to explore the art and their own creativity.

Coming Soon to FAMSF’s Legion of Honor

Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art | Opens March 2, 2025

“I believe very much in the tradition that art comes from art and nothing else” —Wayne Thiebaud Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021) became famous for his colorful paintings of American confections and buffets. He was also a self-described art “thief,” who openly drew ideas from and reinterpreted old and new European and American artworks. An influential teacher at Sacramento Junior College and the University of California, Davis, Thiebaud never stopped learning. He believed that art history is a continuum that connects artists of the past, present, and future. Highlighting work from across the beloved artist’s six-decade career, this exhibition features Thiebaud’s inventive reinterpretations and direct copies of famous artworks, as well as objects from his personal art collection that inspired him. Approximately 60 quintessential works by Thiebaud — including paintings of people (alone and together); still lives of cakes, tabletops, and other ordinary objects; cityscapes featuring soaring buildings; and mountain landscapes — offer an in-depth exploration of one of the most important and overlooked aspects of his creative practice: his passionate engagement with art history.

A LOVE LETTER TO ART RECOMMENDS

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Author: ALoveLettertoArt