Lublin. 18 works by Tamara Łempicka from Mexico went to the National Museum in Lublin

On Friday, a press conference “From Cuernavaki to the Lublin Castle – new acquisitions of the National Museum in Lublin” was held at the National Museum in Lublin. Piotr Glinskithe head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage referred to the fact that three exhibitions of “the great Polish painter Tamara Łempicka” took place in Poland last year.

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– This largest review exhibition was right here at the National Museum in Lublin. 86,000 people visited the exhibition. We also had an exhibition of Lempicka at the National Museum in Krakow, as well as at Villa la Fleur in Konstancin. In Poland, there are only two paintings by Lempicka in public collections. A dozen or so paintings, or even a little more, are in a private collection in Konstancin, said Gliński. And he added that Tamara Łempicka is also the most expensive Polish artist.

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He informed that now there are more paintings by Lempicka in Poland. – Thanks to the work of our museologists, mainly thanks to the merits of the National Museum in Lublin, we managed to purchase 18 works by Tamara Łempicka from the collection of Mexicowhere Łempicka spent the last years of her life – he said.

He reminded that the artist died in 1980 and spent the last years of her life in the house of Manuel Contreras, a Mexican sculptor. – We got in touch with him, we talked, our delegations went there several times, also with the help of the Polish embassy, ​​and we managed to purchase basically all of Lempicka’s output, which was located in Mexico. At the same time, we carried out this project in consultation with Łempicka’s heirs, who also contributed to the success of our exhibition in Lublin. We have very good contact and the relevant documents have been signed, and the ownership rights after the purchase of these 18 works by Tamara Łempicka are confirmed for the Polish state, for the National Museum in Lublin, explained the minister.

He thanked everyone who contributed to this – the director and the team of the National Museum in Lublin, as well as the Department of Cultural Heritage Abroad and Memorial Sites, diplomacy in Mexico. – It was a good job done for Polish culture – he said, noting that “Łempicka returned to her homeland”.

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The head of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage announced that the works were purchased from the reserve of the Prime Minister, with the participation of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. – The Polish state can afford to develop the collections of the largest, most famous in the world – Łempicka is one of such artists – he added. He explained that the purchase of 18 works by Lempicka cost PLN 8.5 million, “just over two million dollars”.

The director of the National Museum in Lublin, Katarzyna Mieczkowska, informed that the purchased collection consists of 12 canvases and six drawings. The oldest work dates from 1922, and the youngest from 1980, she said. The director announced that the works will be presented at the National Museum in Lublin later this month.

– On June 23, I would like to invite you to the world’s first permanent exhibition of Tamara Łempicka’s works under the name “Tamara Łempicka beyond borders”. During the exhibition, we will present these 18 works, but also thanks to the very good cooperation with Łempicka’s family, we received a long-term deposit – 15 works by Tamara Łempicka, which will also please the eyes of the Polish and not only Polish audience – said Mieczkowska. She added that the museum also received permission to digitize Łempicka’s family archive, which had not been made public so far.

During the Friday conference in Lublin, five works by Lempicka were presented. These were “Lemon” from 1947, “Woman in a Turban III” from 1954, “Madonna II” from 1957, “Nude with a jug I” from 1951 and “Motherhood” from 1930.

As stated in the press release, the purchased works by Tamara Łempicka show the artist’s style developed back in the 1930s, in which she uses strong drawings, expressive chiaroscuro, austerity of form and sharpness of color. Objects from the 1940s represent works in which the influences of early art and education in Andre Lhote’s studio in Paris can be found. An example is the painting “Lemon”, in which mundane objects have been shown in careful arrangements. The unique composition set in the open space of the stable also contains a moral message, ordering to think about the passage of time and the transience of things.

Works from the 1950s and 1960s are a perfect example of Łempicka developing a new painting language. In the works from this period, a slow departure from the style defined in the 1930s can be noticed. The artist, without abandoning the topic of nude or still life, increasingly tended towards representations devoid of strong geometrization of figures.

On the other hand, objects from the 1970s and 1980s show new conventions in the artist’s painting. In the purchased collection, one can observe both a change in the painting technique and a departure from classical motifs towards abstract painting. Paintings painted with a palette knife with a monochromatic, illuminated, blurred palette of colors begin to reveal Łempicka’s sensitivity to sudden changes of light. On the other hand, abstract compositions are not only an attempt to re-interest American critics in his art, but a kind of differentiated dialogue with the tradition of abstract painting. The artist, using complex systems of interpenetrating ribbons, colorful stripes and geometric forms filled with diverse painting textures, creates a new language that becomes an update of the decorative aspects of her painting.