Google honors painter Tamara de Lempicka with new Doodle

May 16 (UPI) -- Google is celebrating what would have been the 120th birthday of Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka with a new Doodle.

Lempicka, born in 1898, fell in love with art at an early age, admiring Renaissance painters alongside her grandmother over a summer in Italy.

Lempicka moved in with her wealthy aunt in Russia after her parents got divorced and met her future husband, Tadeusz Lempicki. The artist, after the Russian Revolution began, moved to Paris where she began her formal artistic training under French painters Maurice Denis and Andre Lhote.

"Internalizing her grandiose and decorative surroundings, Lempicka went on to produce exquisite tributes to the Roaring Twenties in her own unique way, utilizing a blend of late neoclassical and refined cubist styles in her art. Her affinity for the luxurious also led her to fixate on portraits of artists, stars, and aristocrats, which coupled with her considerable charm and exotic lifestyle, lit up the art world and social circles of the period," Google said of her career and distinct Art Deco style.

Google's homepage features artwork depicting Lempicka done in an Art Deco style alongside a speeding car and flowers. The piece was done by Google Doodler Matthew Cruickshank

"Few artists embodied the exuberant roaring twenties more than Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka. Her fast paced, opulent lifestyle manifests itself perfectly into the stylized Art-Deco subjects she celebrated in her paintings," Cruickshank said.

"I first encountered Lempicka's work at her Royal Academy show in London, 2004. I was struck by the scale and skill of her paintings coupled with her life (as colorful as her work!). I chose to place a portrait of Lempicka in my design with accompanying motifs evocative of the roaring '20s and '30s. It's no easy feat to recreate any artists work -- but I hope to have done so here."