The first feature-length documentary about the extraordinary Polish Jewish painter Tamara de Lempicka—whose enduring work is beloved by art collectors the world over, including Barbra Streisand, and who was the subject of a recent Broadway musical—Julie Rubio’s film provides an essential and riveting account of a woman who defied all rules. After stunning the international art world in 1920s Paris with her work, which mixed cubist and neoclassicist styles, Lempicka fled to the United States in 1940 amidst the rise of fascism in Europe. This film charts her path to freedom—as an artist, as an immigrant, as a bisexual woman—and examines what gives her marvelous paintings their aesthetic power and political impact. Narrated by Anjelica Huston, and featuring newly discovered material, including 8mm home movies, Rubio’s film is a tribute to an undimmed luminary and an investigation into the sociohistorical and psychological realities that create artistic legacy.
“THE TRUE STORY OF TAMARA DE LEMPICKA & THE ART OF SURVIVAL © 2024 TAMARA DE LEMPICKA ESTATE, LLC / ADAGP, PARIS / ARS, NY”
