Passionate, provocative, free-spirited, and forward-thinking: we trace the rise, fall, and new limelight of the Polish artist

Women in art history have, unfortunately, been numerically inferior to male artists. Partly because they were once not allowed to express themselves through art, and partly because they were opposed by a macho system that has always prevented them from making their way in this world.
Until the mid-20th century, there were few women who had managed to make an impact on the art history scene. One of these is definitely Tamara de Lempicka.
An enterprising and passionate woman, she was born in Poland in the late 1800s. After touring Europe, marrying at a very young age in Russia and having quite a few problems with the law because of her political views, she settled in Paris where in the 1920s she came across the painting/stylistic style most in vogue at that time and became one of its major exponents: theArt Deco.
In love with the female figure (she was openly bisexual, at a time in history when expressing one’s sexual orientation was taboo), she painted strong women with marked features, angular faces and soft, round physiques. Enterprising women, modern women, brash and uncompromising women, women of high society and women of ill repute. Naked or dressed in a simple veil. In chaste clothes and in provocative outfits. Women smoking and driving. Sad women and severe women. Orgies of women. Masculine women. Sometimes also men but with female facial features.

Lempicka’s focus on the female figure has led many to think that part of the author’s own history, the strong character she possessed and the mental freedom she had, was hidden in her portraits. Tamara de Lempicka was all of her women.
In the early 1940s, just before the outbreak of World War II, she moved to Beverly Hills with her second husband. America and modernity moved her away from Art Deco and closer to abstract art. He also became nomadic in the United States. He moved first to Huston and then to New York, as his art became less and less impactful and slowly fell into oblivion. Now elderly, she left the comforts of the States and fell in love with rough Mexico, where she died in silence in 1980.

It was not until after her death that another woman, as free and enterprising as she was, a lover of art and women, succeeded in rehabilitating her name and artistry: it was thanks to the singer Madonna that Tamara de Lempicka’s name returned to prominence. A great collector of her works, Madonna uses her paintings in several music videos, imitating their style and poses in photo shoots. Great fashion photographers and famous directors reproduce for Madonna the colors and lights of Tamara de Lempicka’s works. Her name returns to the art market, her works are dusted off and begin to tour museums around the world, winning an audience of admirers and scholars who will give Lempicka’s great talent the esteem it deserves.
Tamara de Lempicka was all of her women. Most likely Madonna is one of them.

L'articolo Tamara de Lempicka<br>Was all his women proviene da Fashionlife Magazine.

L'articolo Irvine Method: a mix of precision, curiosity, research and a lot of irony proviene da Fashionlife Magazine.

It always made me smile at people’s reaction whenever I mentioned Keith Haring. The puzzled look to say, “Who are you talking about?” but if to his name you also show any of his work, his unparalleled style, then people’s faces light up, “Ah yes yes! Now I understand who he is!”
It makes me smile because, 30 years after his death, Keith Haring’s purpose can be called more than achieved.
But let’s start step by step.
Keith Haring was born in Pennsylvania in 1958. Since childhood, he has shown a strong artistic bent by drawing fictional characters that are a mix between a comic book and a cartoon. A middle-class family, they supported his artistic flair by enrolling him in art school, and that is when Keith learned the techniques and knowledge of history’s great artists, from Michelangelo to Leonardo Da Vinci, via Caravaggio to Botero.

 

The very strong desire to see all the works live pursued him for years, he wanted to be able to see with his own eyes the colors of the world’s most famous canvases, to understand the technique of color and painting, but at the same time he began to limit a political and social idea of art that would be defined precisely through the study of artists: the artist’s work as a social concept.
Squeezed into the provincial American mentality at age 19, he left his hometown to move to cosmopolitan New York City, which would introduce him to fame and popularity, serve as a springboard for his artistic vision but at the same time serve as a hefty bill to pay for a dissolute and promiscuous life.
In his New York years, Haring felt free to live out his homosexuality, which until then he had kept under lock and key, unacceptable in his country of origin, and not only began to experiment with sex with men but made his sexual orientation a political and social action apt to rid the world of the prejudice and stigma of AIDS that in those years had led to gays being discriminated against and hated more than usual.

“His last public work, a year before he died, was in 1989 in Pisa. He painted the facade of the church of Sant’Antonio Abbate, and the work (one of the few with a title) is called ALL THE WORLD. It is a huge depiction of the world, of what Haring hoped the world would become, of love and brotherhood.”

He meets the greatest exponents of Pop Art-Andy Wharol, Jean-Michael Basquiat, and Lee Quinones-but he hates the idea of artwork remaining locked in a museum. Thus the conception of making his worldview in every part visible. He began painting in small public spaces in the subway where people passing by could become familiar with his style. Walls of buildings, cars, plastic bottles, cups and T-shirts. He painted everywhere. Even on himself. Hence his democratic idea of art.
His messages are about freedom, peace, equality. But also very intimate: his pains, fears and passion for sex. He is obsessed with the idea that everyone should know his art, even those who are not interested in art or who cannot afford to go to a museum. And in an age still far removed from social, so he plans to make his images fluent through two major channels very close to young people: MTV and SWATCH watches. In no time his works became iconic becoming the quintessential symbol of the 1980s.
Start traveling the world. His works can be traced to all European capitals and South America. In New York, in the Soho neighborhood, Pop Shop opens. It sells gadgets engraved with his most iconic works but is also a space for young artists can experiment and showcase their artwork.

He died at the age of 31 from complications of AIDS. Realizing he would not live long, he founded the Keith Haring Foundation to support artists who send messages of peace and equality.
His last public work, a year before he died, was in 1989 in Pisa. He painted the facade of the church of St. Anthony Abbot, and the work (one of the few that has a title) is called ALL THE WORLD. It is a huge depiction of the world, of what Haring hoped the world would become, of love and brotherhood.

L'articolo Keith Haring<br>the democratic artist proviene da Fashionlife Magazine.

He has always been involved in land use planning, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage. After graduating with a degree in architecture, she specialized in urban design, but the experience that marked her outlook on the world and her subsequent work was undoubtedly serving as a city councilor. This experience allowed her to acquire, enriching her education, those operational tools useful for putting into practice strategies and visions aimed at the transformation and improvement of some significant jewels of our land.

Very young, just 27 years old, she measured herself in governance of “public affairs” with such passion that-she tells us-her mayor used to stigmatize her persevering efforts by calling her “Joan of Arc.” This aptitude and propensity for land planning and management has always been directed first and foremost to the enhancement of urban spaces and degraded or abandoned public properties; in fact, this has become his authentic mission. In the Atellan area, a 1940s Balilla House of fine rationalist architecture was abandoned and defaced: thanks to his contribution it was acquired as municipal property, and with the implementation of the restoration, redevelopment and expansion project carried out with architects Luigi Sirico and Pasquale Mitrano, it became the House of the Arts, with a library and a space for theater and applied arts. Here artists Mimmo di Dio and Andrea Sparaco have marked the space with poetic works that dialogue with language and words and meditation, in the thinking room. The Electa publishing house has published a monograph of this interesting architectural work, which has been awarded several prizes. In Positano, always in the vein of art and architecture, which have become central themes of her reflections and works, Rosalba Iodice is designer, with Max De Cesaris, of the redevelopment of Piazza Flavio Gioia, with the participation of artist Mimmo Paladino. The intervention emphasizes the value of contemporary art in the historic city: the square has become an open-air museum of contemporary art and overlooks the ruins of a Roman villa. The suggestion of the ruins, the mosaic fragments under the lapillus battuto–a type of pavement used by the Romans, as well as the coccio pesto on the walls–make up the new pavement. The use of materials retraces the sense of a rediscovered space “brought to light” under the now thickened and consolidated lava flow of the eruption of Vesuvius. The metaphor of finds from restorations and fragments unearthed by excavations is dialectically combined with technique where “every leftover work of art cannot be brought back to unity, as Cesare Brandi taught us,” says Rosalba Iodice. Paladino realizes his mosaic work with inserts in the pavement and a splendid column, symbols of ancient history, to be given back a voice in the memory of the community. Thanks in part to this delicate and refined urban intervention, in subsequent years the Roman domus was excavated “brought back to light” and is now usable as the site of an archaeological museum.
It is his article “The Inseparable Place of Art and Architecture: works of art in public spaces” in D’A 32 Art and Architecture.
For enlightened cultural entrepreneur Luciano Stella, he designed and built the Happy Maxi Cinema multiplex at the Gates of Naples. She is coordinating a team of architects and engineers for this challenging and also technological realization. On the curved wall that cuts through the large structural glass window, joining the outside with the inside, it reads, “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way” wanting to leave a reflection also for the frequenters of a shopping center that, despite ourselves, has become the agora of our times. Among the urban regeneration interventions he drafts with Alessia Fratta the Integrated Program of the area contiguous to the Royal Palace of Caserta, with the redevelopment of several public spaces and restorations on underutilized and abandoned properties: these have now become facilities for culture, entertainment and hospitality. Here a public financing of only 5 million euros triggered a process of private investment of more than 70 million euros, revitalizing the entire city area contiguous to the Reggia and triggering qualified public planning with the construction of a large underground parking lot, the re-functionalization of historic hemicycles and other properties along the perimeter of the monument. Today, this important urban regeneration is still underway; the relocation of the Air Force, according to a subsequent and far-sighted program of the Ministry of Culture, is of these days. Urban regeneration that is also social and cultural: going beyond the fate of places, this becomes an opportunity for the production of value systems for the growth of harmonious interactions. He publishes this significant work of territorial planning and redevelopment by editing the volume “The City of Memory” the Integrated Program of the Royal Palace of Caserta and its development potential with photographs by Fabio Donato. For years she has been a cultural heritage development consultant for the Campania Region, also holding the position of Managing Authority for the Interregional Cultural, Natural and Tourism Attractions Program and helping to define the Poles and Networks of the Southern Italian Regions. Also in the Region, in the role of senior expert for the Integrated Promotion and Enhancement of the Cultural Heritage System, he oversaw the implementation of several interventions falling under the Integrated Projects of Major Cultural Attractions, including the Phlegraean Fields, Pompeii Herculaneum, the Royal Palace of Caserta, and with Francesco Escalona the fascinating Phlegraean Island, with the project “Cultural Tourist Circuit between the Phlegraean Island of Procida and Bacoli: ancient baths, imperial villas, villages, abbeys, castles and palaces” with the involvement of the territories of Ischia Procida Bacoli and Pozzuoli to visit the archaeological and natural wonders of the Phlegrean Fields.

She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Real Sito di Carditello Foundation at the stage of defining its governance and its actual operational start under the chairmanship of Mirella Baracco and former Minister Nicolais afterwards.
From 2015 to 2020 she’ was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Museum of the Royal Palace of Caserta. She has accompanied her professional activity with constant scholarly study of issues related to cultural policies, including teaching at various universities and schools – including one for managers – and has been a lecturer in the course “Public Management for the Enhancement of Cultural Heritage”; at Luiss University with Enzo Peruffo she presented the Procida case.
Her love for the popularization and knowledge management of cultural heritage also led her to scout new possibilities for the enjoyment of archaeological sites: as early as 2010, she filed a patent for the enjoyment of cultural heritage in a dynamic interactive mode using “augmented reality” technologies. The intent is to make the enjoyment of archaeological sites attractive to groups generally excluded from cultural consumption: innovative ways of enjoying cultural heritage, new perspectives on visiting, knowledge and education. The possibility, therefore, of transforming a classic visit into an engaging and exciting experience, making history comprehensible to most and bringing the values of ancient architecture to the knowledge of even the least motivated but indispensable users, such as residents, in the belief that only through their participation can cultural heritage become alive, protected and constitute a propulsive symbol of territories. For more than 10 years she has lived in Procida with Cesare and Paolo, their son. As soon as she arrived on the island, she tells us, she put her expertise at the disposal of the municipality for the activation of the difficult process of transferring the former prison, through federalism of state ownership, with the drafting of a sustainable and credible Redevelopment Program. He was later involved in the drafting of the Detailed Plan of this important monumental complex built in the second half of the 1500s at the behest of Cardinal Innico d’Avalos, son of Alfonso, of whom a splendid portrait painted by Titian is on display at the Getty Museum.
The Cardinal’s palace became the royal residence of Charles of Bourbon in 1734 and the penal bath of the Kingdom in 1830. From the mid 1800s the Jesuits made it a place of redemption for outcasts and lifers, pursuing the principle of ora et labora. In 1988, the maximum-security prison was closed and has been left in the decay of neglect ever since. Rosalba Iodice’s work for the city administration has been to build the conditions to breathe new life into this cultural asset. The Palazzo d’Avalos, in its value as a cultural hub, as reported in the Enhancement Program, through its regeneration will be able to open its doors to the stay of visitors related to research, the foreign university system, residencies for artists and creative people with a widespread cultural production, becoming the new factory for the island of the world of art, knowledge, research and higher education and thus accompanying the hopes and visions of the future of the youth of this beautiful island, with the care not to distort its identity and rhythms.
At the conclusion of the drafting of the planning and urban planning tools prepared for the Procida Municipal Administration, the Nutrimenti publishing house published the monograph “Palazzo d’Avalos and the former prison of Procida: the Renaissance monumental complex between past present and future.” The book has been translated into English, its printing is awaited. She was curator and artistic director of the event “Itineraries of Art Architecture Nature Literature Theater Cinema among Ethnographic Gastronomic and Musical Traditions” promotional event program funded by the Campania Region. This project was the cue and trigger for a series of new annual cultural events in Procida including Il Trofeo del mare, which later became Maretica, of which today Alessandro Baricco together with Claudio Fogu and Procidans Gianni and Domenico Scotto carry on an interesting annual event for the island, along with the historic awards dedicated to Elsa Morante, Concetta Barra and the splendid format Procida racconta wanted by Andrea Palombi and Ada Carpi of Nutrimenti and edited by Chiara Gamberale.

With the itinerary dedicated to the former prison, now finally for everyone Palazzo d’Avalos, the regeneration of this asset through contemporary art begins with Alfredo Pirri’s work “7.0, which Rosalba likes to call “Sun rises in Palazzo d’Avalos.” The work takes on, as seen from the book’s cover, the value of a symbol of regeneration: a beam of light that at dawn transforms a window into a brilliant set in the manor to imprint and almost seal rebirth, making its fourth life blossom, through the purifying and regenerative art of this majestic architecture in the heart of the Mediterranean, an appointment elaborated later, with bravura, by the association that manages the dawn visits to the palace. The most fascinating part of the 16th-century monumental complex is undoubtedly Santa Margherita Nuova, which stands on the promontory opposite Corricella. Rosalba Iodice is the co-designer of the consolidation and restoration of the former convent and is overseeing its work to create exhibition galleries, museum spaces and relational spaces. This place will be an important and attractive scenic route for visitors, but first and foremost a new venue for the many cultural activities of the very lively Procidan community. The former convent will become the place where art will be inextricably linked to the architectural sense of space.

L'articolo Rosalba Iodice<br>Land conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage proviene da Fashionlife Magazine.

L'articolo Peter Del Vaglio<br>the poet of dwelling proviene da Fashionlife Magazine.