The mysterious Madame Lipska and her aluminium folding screen…

Antoine de Paris and his Glass House

Lipska’s interiors embraced functionalist modernism, emphasizing space, clean lines, and furniture free from unnecessary decorative elements.
A person who became a friend, a key collaborator and long-standing benefactor (he continued to support both Lipska and Dunikowski long after the war) was the famous Antoine de Paris, born Antoni Cierplikowski – the world’s first celebrity hairdresser who is said to have invented the iconic 1920s short bob – often referred to as the “shingle cut” or “à la garçonne” – for women. Lipska decorated his salons and private apartments, as she did for many others, including Natalie Paley, a Russian princess and wife of fashion designer Lucien Lelong.

Sara Lipska’s most celebrated projects was the Glass House designed for Antoni Cierplikowski and presented in 1931. The minimalist interior featured extensive use of thick glass for furniture, floors, and even staircases, including a coffin-shaped bed made of tempered glass.

”Her floor-to-ceiling windows made a huge impression. Part of them used blue and red glass, which created a stained-glass effect. Light would bounce off polished stone floors and walls partly-covered with mirrors. In the dining room, there was a massive mirror in a gold frame on the ceiling above the table. The walls were lined with black glass panels, which, though opaque, reflected light and space wonderfully.”

Ewa Ziembińska in Sara Lipska: W cieniu mistrza

“Triplex apartment occupies the top floors of a Haussmann-style building constructed in 1895 by architect Albert Labouret and raised in 1927 by Charles Thomas in a modern style, at the request of Antoine Cierplikowski, a renowned avant-garde hairdresser of the Roaring Twenties. The Polish-born painter, stylist, sculptor, and decorator Sarah Lipska designed the interior layout and décor of the space.”

Apparently this is the apartment of Antoni Cierplikowski today!

Sara Lipska – the allround designer and artist

But already in 1929 another apartment had drawn attention to itself: the apartment of the American millionaire Templeton Crocker. The project was a joint venture between Jean-Michel Frank, Jean Dunand, Pierre Legrain and Sara. A group American Vogue described as the best designers inFrance.
For her friend Helena Rubinstein, the cosmetics entrepreneur and founder, Sara designed boutiques interiors as well as packaging, bottles and advertising materials for her cosmetics.

No matter what art form Sara Lipska’s work combined Art Déco’s geometric precision with organic, anthropomorphic forms, always blending and consistently blurring the boundary between fine art and functional craftsmanship.
Her theatrical designs often emphasized bold silhouettes, stylized forms and expressive color, aligning her closely with the experimental spirit of the interwar period. Many of them she created with André Mare, the French painter and textile designer who is considered one of the founders of the Art Déco movement. Together they worked on several theatre projects, designing sets and costumes that pushed the boundaries between fine art and applied art.

The shows

Sara Lipska exhibited at the Paris Salons and participated in the major international exhibitions. At the 1925 International Exhibition of Decorative Arts she was awarded a gold medal for her embroidered tapestries. She also exhibited at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition and the 1937 International Exhibition “Art and Technology in Contemporary Life” in Paris.

The car crash

At car accident in 1929, undermined Sara Lipska’s health and slowed her career. Despite few others of her contemporaries so fluently moved across fine art, textile, fashion, stage design and interior decoration this interruption – perhaps combined with war, displacement and the difficulty of categorising her practice – may explain her name is not among those that scream the loudest in the history of modern design.
After the accident Sara Lipska had to relearn French and was denied French citizenship as a result. In 1939, according to her daughter Maria Xawery Dunikowska, she was also forced to close her Champs-Élysées boutique.

Throughout these years, Lipska continued working as a sculpture – using a wide range of materials, including wood, cement, and stone – while also painting, landscapes but perhaps more importantly portraits of her friends and contemporaries. People like Colette, Natalie Paley, Marchesa Casati, Paul Poiret, Sergei Diaghilev, Prince Paul Murat and Artur Rubinstein. She also illustrated books and was responsible for the graphic design of the exclusive magazine Antoine-Document: pour la femme moderne, a magazine devoted to fashion and culture, published between 1932 and 1937 by Antoni Cierplikowski.

Later years

During World War II, Lipska lost her brother and many other family members in the Nazi concentration camps. She and her daughter survived but spent the war in hiding. Dunikowski were imprisoned in 1940 and survived Auschwitz. After the war, the couple resumed contact after the war.

In 1953, Sara Lipska designed a monument to the socialist leader Léon Blum, erected in Narbonne. She also created a bust of Cierplikowski and produced works as the bas-relief The Birth of Venus.
In the late 1950s, Lipska turned increasingly on ornithological motifs and collaborated with the Nature Conservation League, for which she created brochures, badges, stamps, and posters. Birds, a reccurring theme throughout her life, never left her work.

One of her last sculptures, Head of Artur Rubinstein (above), was presented in 1963 at the Salon de l’Art Libre held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.

Sara Lipska died in 1973 at the age of 91.

Different interiors designed by Sara Lipska. Photos: Thérèse Bonney, Smithsonian Libraries

The atelier of the printers MM Draeger, in a building by architect Huillier, which Sara Lipska decorated together with Rene Martin. Photo: Found online.

Bathroom designs by Sara Lipska. Top three, Barbara Harrison’s house in Rambouillet, France, circa 1928. Photos: Thérèse Bonney, Smithsonian Libraries.