{"id":9342,"date":"2011-06-15T19:22:07","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T00:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=9342"},"modified":"2011-06-15T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2011-06-16T00:22:07","slug":"55th-annual-june-show-reception-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/06\/15\/55th-annual-june-show-reception-blowout\/","title":{"rendered":"55th Annual June Show Reception BlowOut!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>The 55th<\/sup> Annual June Art Exhibit opening reception was just a little bit different from the norm as far as art receptions go. Instead of a typical Sunday gig with light refreshments and punch we had a large BBQ with live music by guitarist John Reichle and an awards ceremony!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The galleries were packed with happy, well-fed onlookers who got to enjoy a great supper with barbeque from Wild Hare BBQ and side dishes arranged by Van Wert native Jayne Smith. Along with iced tea and lavender lemonade, craft beers with names such as Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald, Magic Hat and Shiner Bock Ruby Red were also on tap! The names of these beers rivaled that of some of the artwork names contained in the galleries.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Reichle, a guitarist from Montpelier, entertained the crowds with acoustic music and witty anecdotes. John has been performing in the tri-state area for many years, including performances at the Governor\u2019s mansion. Needless to say, it appeared everyone was having a great time and the front lawn of the Wassenberg Art Center was a flurry of activity and toe-tapping good times. A huge thank you goes out to all who donated their time, effort and resources to help create a fun, community gala.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At 7 p.m. awards were presented (my favorite thing) on the lawn to the artists in attendance. It is such a pleasure to recognize the compelling work that can come out of a small, rural area such as ours. New York City has nothing on us! Come in and check out some wonderful original works. Many of the pieces are for sale. A great investment that will look super on your walls!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The June Art Exhibit runs through June 25 and the art center is open Tuesday \u2013Sunday from 1-5 p.m. The show is sponsored through the generosity of Van Wert Federal Savings Bank.\u00a0 Stop in and say hello, and check out firsthand the artwork that celebrates our culture and heritage.<\/p>\n

Tamara De Lempicka, the glamour star of Art Deco<\/h2>\n

By Kay Sluterbeck<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cAuto-portrait (Tamara in the Green Bugatti)\u201d, oil, by Tamara De Lempicka.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0For many designers, the bold bright colors and geometric designs of Art Deco (\u201cArts Decoratifs\u201d), which reached its peak in the Roaring 20s, represent the best and purest forms of that art period.\u00a0 Of all the artists who pursued the Art Deco style, the most memorable may be Tamara De Lempicka.\u00a0 Born in 1895 in Moscow (she preferred to say she was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1902) to a wealthy and prominent family, she has been called the \u201cfirst woman artist to be a glamour star.\u201d\u00a0 She was also a world-class liar, a termagant, a vainglorious socialite, and possibly one of the 20th century\u2019s most important artists.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tamara\u2019s wealthy grandmother spoiled the beautiful young girl with travel and clothing.\u00a0\u00a0 When she was 14 her grandmother sent her to boarding school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and after her parents\u2019 divorce she spent time in St. Petersburg, Russia, with her Aunt Stephanie, whose husband was a millionaire.\u00a0 After enjoying the high life with her relatives, Tamara decided this was the life for her, and immediately set out to get it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At age 15, while attending the opera, she saw a man she became determined to marry.\u00a0 This was Tadeusz Lempicki, a lawyer by title but also a well-known ladies man and society gadabout.\u00a0 They were married in St. Petersburg in 1916 with Tamara\u2019s banker uncle providing a handsome dowry.\u00a0 Lempicki, who had no money of his own, was delighted to marry a beautiful 16-year-old girl with plenty of money included.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A year later during the Russian revolution, Tadeusz arrested by Bolsheviks in the dead of night.\u00a0 Maria bravely searched the prisons for him, using her charm and good looks to get favors from the necessary officials.\u00a0 After several weeks, with the help of the Swedish consul, she found Tadeusz and got him out of the country.\u00a0 They fled to Paris, France, where Tamara\u2019s family had escaped and relocated.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The couple lived in Paris on money from the sale of family jewels.\u00a0 Tamara, now known as \u201cTamara De Lempicka\u201d studied art and worked day and night.\u00a0 Her bold and distinctive painting style, somewhat influenced by cubism, was perfectly suited to the exotic, sexy and glamorous tastes of 1920s Paris.\u00a0 Her technique was novel, clean, precise and elegant.\u00a0 As for Tadeusz, he either couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t find work.\u00a0 During this period Tamara gave birth to a daughter, Kizette.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For her first major show in Milan, Italy, in 1925, De Lempicka painted 28 works of art in six months.\u00a0 She quickly became most fashionable society portrait painter of her generation.\u00a0 Her daughter, Kizette De Lempica-Foxhall, wrote in \u201cPassion by Design,\u201d a biography of her mother, that \u201cShe painted them all; the rich, the successful, the renowned — the best.\u00a0 And with many she also slept.\u201d\u00a0 The work brought De Lempicka critical acclaim, social celebrity, and great wealth.\u00a0 A portrait usually took her about three weeks, and by 1927 she could charge $50,000 francs (about $20,000 in today\u2019s money).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 1925 she painted one of her most famous works, \u201cAuto-Portrait (Tamara in the Green Bugatti)\u201d for the cover of \u201cDie Dame,\u201d a German fashion magazine.\u00a0\u00a0 According to the magazine \u201cAuto-Journal, \u201cthe self-portrait of Tamara De Lempicka is a real image of the independent woman who asserts herself.\u00a0 Her hands are gloved, she is helmeted, and inaccessible; a cold and disturbing beauty through which pierces a formidable being — this woman is free!\u201d\u00a0 One might also add that those hooded eyes have a rapacity that seems to sum up the real woman, who couldn\u2019t get enough cash, fame, or sex.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 De Lempicka enjoyed the bohemian life of Paris in the Roaring Twenties.\u00a0 She hung out with Picasso, Jean Cocteau, and the other famous artists and poets who gathered together regularly.\u00a0 She also was the subject of numerous scandals for her affairs with both men and women.\u00a0 Her marriage became simply an \u201carrangement\u201d and in 1927 her husband abandoned her.\u00a0 They were divorced in 1928.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Obsessed with work and social life, De Lempicka neglected more than her husband.\u00a0 She rarely saw her daughter, who lived with her grandmother when she wasn\u2019t at boarding school in France or England.\u00a0 Despite her mother\u2019s domination, occasionally Kizette showed a flash of spirit.\u00a0 In 1929, when Kizette learned that her mother would not be coming back from America for Christmas, she took De Lempicka\u2019s enormous collection of designer hats out of their closet and burned them, one by one, with great relish.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Strangely, although De Lempicka neglected Kizette, she painted pictures of her repeatedly, leaving a striking series of portraits that chronicled her daughter\u2019s growing up:\u00a0 \u201cKizette in Pink,\u201d \u201cKizette on the Balcony,\u201d \u201cKizette Sleeping,\u201d \u201cPortrait of Baroness Kizette,\u201d etc.\u00a0 In many of De Lempicka\u2019s other paintings, the women depicted bear a resemblance to Kizette.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 1928 her longtime patron Baron Raoul Kuffner commissioned her to paint his mistress.\u00a0 De Lempicka painted the portrait — then took the mistress\u2019 place in the Baron\u2019s life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(To be continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hope Wallace \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The 55th Annual June Art Exhibit opening reception was just a little bit different from the norm as far as art receptions go. Instead of a typical Sunday gig with light refreshments and punch we had a large BBQ with live music by guitarist John Reichle and an awards ceremony! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wassenberg"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 19:25:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}