Macha Mexico has been neglecting this exhibit for no reason, but fortunately it’s still time to go. Tamara de Lempicka was a talented Russian painter from the 1930′s, who rubbed elbows with Josephine Baker, Amedeo Modigliani, and Diego Rivera, among others. So there couldn’t be a better place for this exhibit than the building of the Fine Arts Museum, which was built during the same years when Lempicka created the best part of her work.
Described as an independent woman and committed with her artwork, Lempicka was extremely skilled to portrait other women in a glamourous way, showing how strong and sexy can be a female body. During the nineties, Tamara de Lempicka became an icon among Hollywood stars after Barbra Streisand bought one of her paintings. Madonna used one of Lempicka’s images in the opening scene of the video “Open Your Heart”, and was inspired by Lempicka’s paintings to create the aesthetics in the video “Vogue”.
Lempicka lived in a long series of cities in Europe and after the war, she moved to New York where she became a successful artist. But she spent her last days in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she was trying to deal with the effects of arteriosclerosis that affected her at the end of her life. When she died in 1980, her ashes were scattered over the volcano Popocatépetl–a beautiful way to say goodbye to a life full of exquisiteness.
Tamara de Lempicka; Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Avenida Hidalgo no. 1, Centro, 5521 9251, Bellas Artes Metro station; from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Sundays the entrance is free. Until September 2009.