A major retrospective of Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka (1898–1980) has opened at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, featuring over 120 works including iconic portraits, lesser-known drawings, and early Cubist still lifes. Co-curated by Furio Rinaldi and Gioia Mori, the exhibition is the first comprehensive U.S. retrospective of the artist in over four decades, drawing passionate responses from audiences unfamiliar with her name as well as from connoisseurs discovering her draftsmanship.
This exhibition matters because it reassesses Lempicka’s defining role within the Art Deco movement and the broader modernist canon, correcting a legacy that was nearly lost after World War II due to her Jewish identity and shifting art trends. By highlighting her feminine perspective in depictions of the female nude and her classical 'return to order' style, the show positions Lempicka as a highly original modernist artist whose work has recently regained commercial and cultural traction, including a Sotheby’s selling exhibition and a Broadway musical.