Lecture | Tamara de Lempicka in Fashion Thursday, April 17, 2025 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Laura Camerlengo
Tamara de Lempicka, Young Girl in Green (Young Girl with Gloves), c. 1931, oil on board, Centre Pompidou, purchase, 1932, inv. JP557P. © 2025 Tamara de Lempicka Estate, LLC / ADAGP, Paris / ARS, NY. Digital image © CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY.
Curator Laura Camerlengo of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco discusses Tamara de Lempicka’s sense of composition and fashion in relation to the larger Art Deco design trends of the era.
This lecture is presented to accompany Tamara de Lempicka. The first American museum retrospective of the Polish artist’s work, this exhibition explores Lempicka’s distinctive style and unconventional life in Europe and the Americas as she rose to the pinnacle of café society and reveled in her avant-garde sensibilities.
Plan Your Visit
- Free with Museum admission
- This lecture takes place in Lynn Wyatt Theater in the Kinder Building. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- The exhibition is located on the upper level of the Law Building.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
This program is the Museum’s annual Peter Lotz Lecture. Endowed by Merrianne Timko in memory of her late husband, the Peter Lotz Lecture is a dedicated series devoted to the history of Modernism across all disciplines represented by the MFAH collections.
About the Speaker
Laura L. Camerlengo is curator in charge of costume and textile arts with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Her publications include The Miser’s Purse; Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love (co-edited by Dilys E. Blum); and Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style, as well as numerous contributions to design publications. She holds an M.A. from Parsons School of Design, the New School/Cooper Hewitt, and the Smithsonian Design Museum in the history of decorative arts and design.
This MFAH lecture is endowed by the Peter Lotz Memorial Fund.
"Tamara de Lempicka" is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Major support is provided by:
Bobbie Nau
Additional generous support is provided by:
Linnet F. Deily
JBD Foundation
Jay Jones and Terry Wayne Jones
Bettie Cartwright
Sara Dodd-Denton and Will Denton
Cecily E. Horton
The Anne and Edgar Lackner Charitable Foundation
Susanne and William E. Pritchard III
Leslie and Russ Robinson
Winnie Scheuer and Kevin Bonebrake
Merrianne Timko
Polish Cultural Institute New York
Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation
Collectors Studio
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the John M. O'Quinn Foundation; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Texas Commission on the Arts; and the Junior League of Houston, Inc.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.
Admission to the MFAH Permanent Collections is free on Thursday, courtesy of Shell USA, Inc.