The filmmaker in Bay Area emphasizes the groundbreaking painter de Lempicka

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“The true story of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival” is shown in the Lark Theater in Larkspur. (2024 Tamara de Lempicka Estate, LLC / Adagp, Paris / Ars, NY)

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Julie Rubio was 21 years old when she hung Tamara de Lempicka's living, sensual works in a hotel in Miami for the first time. The water lily service pieces, a portrait of the long -time friend and lover Ira Perrot and a self -portrait in a green Bugatti, which was thrown along with Rubio.

“Her art with her brave lines and striking figures spoke in a way that was both profound and deeply personal,” said Rubio, a resident of Orinda. “I soon learned that Tamara's art was influenced by her relationships with men and women. This revelation hit a chord in me.”

“When I further explored Tamara's life, I discovered her bisexuality and recognized the same truth in me. It was a moment of clarity and self -acceptance, which emphasized the importance of representation.”

Years later, Rubio met some of De Lempickas in an exhibition in a gallery in San Francisco who had seen a short film that she had made about the impressionist painter Edgar Degas and one of his works “The Rape”. They searched for a filmmaker who wrote and guide a film about de Lempicka's inspiring life and her legacy as an artist.

“They told me how it survived the Russian Revolution and went to Paris,” said Rubio. “And she was so well understood to understand when he should leave Paris because she had fascism in front of her because she had previously lived through the war, and she knew what would come. She saved her bisexual life at the time and spended him selling everything and moving quietly to the United States to get out of Hitler.

Rubio knew that she had to help tell her story. The result is “The True History of Tamara de Lempicka & the Art of Survival”, a documentary that will be shown on Friday at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, at 11:15 a.m., on May 7th and 9:45 a.m. on May 8th in the Lark Theater in Larkspur.

The screening on Friday will include a question-and-answer session with Rubio and her husband, co-producer Blake waves, which was moderated by Marty Murphy, Executive Director of the Larkspur Chamber of Commerce. Entry is $ 9.25 to USD 16.25. You can find more information online at LARKTHEATER.NET.

The film, which had premiere in the Mill Valley Film Festival last autumn, contains interviews with relatives, art historians, collectors, international reporters and Hollywood and Broadway stars as well as personal home videos and previously invisible paintings. Barbra Streisand, a collector of de Lempicka's work, gave Rubio access to her collection and offered comments and instructions throughout the project.

“Julie has been talking about this special project with the Lempickas for over 20 years,” said Wellen, who grew up in Marin. Her son Elijah also worked with them on the film.

While waves on the Tamalpais High School and the University of California explored painting in Los Angeles, he fell in love with the medium of the film by Rubio.

Reinvent oneself

De Lempicka, who got up to international fame in the 1920s, had to reinvent herself in her whole life, hide parts of themselves to protect themselves and their family and to avoid the increasing flood of anti -Semitism that flooded Europe throughout their life.

“I think there were a lot of people,” she hid her Jewish heritage, “but it was not an act of deception. It was the necessary protection,” she said. “Tamara found a way to make something nice out of her pain, but she had to lie her whole life to survive.”

Due to her research for the film, Rubio was able to uncover the full truth about de Lempicka's identity. She was born in 1894, four years earlier than previously assumed; Her name was Tamara Rosa Hurwitz, not Tamara Rozalia Gurwik-Górska; And her family converted from Judaism to Calvinism.

“I think she broke off a lot of barriers and opened the doors for artists. And she put all these fights and turbulence into her pictures and made something nice out of her pain. I think that shows a lot of courage,” said Rubio, who grew up in Los Angeles with dreams to be in the film business. “I feel blessed that I have been able to swim in their history for all these years.”

De Lempicka's art is not only just as relevant today, but also the lessons that can come from their life story, said Rubio.

“We can see what she was able,” she said. “I lost my mother and best friend who made the film and I wanted to devote the film to them and realized when I made the film that life will really be reflected in, and you have to find out how to get up again so that you are in this life when you are in pain.

De Lempicka, known for her portraits of the High Society during the jazz age and sensual files as well as their representations of marginalized communities and the war affected, was recently introduced into public eye state. The first major retrospective of work in the USA was recently at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and has been moved to Houston since then. “Lempicka”, a musical in her life, came to Broadway in 2024.

“I think she was very underestimated in the past,” said Rubio, President of Women in Film San Francisco Bay Area. “But I think that's really her time, and it was so nice to see that people finally appreciate them. It is an authorized story. She paints the future, a new society with her paintings. Her heir must be innovation and strength.”

Further information at tamaroc.com.

Originally published: May 2, 2025 at 7:43 a.m. PDT

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