A Timeless Vision - artist Malcolm Liepke - Brief Article

It's not each day that one happens on an art opening and discovers the majority of works upon view have sold out a bare 10 minutes after the exhibit officially uncloseed But then again, it's not each day that collectors are treated to a one-man present to view by artist Malcolm Liepke, whose classically inspired figurative paintings mesmerize level the most discriminating eye. His sold-out exhibitions from of recent origin York to Hong Kong attest to the popularity of his oil paintings, and Liepke's self-published, limited-edition stone lithographs, which are distributed exclusively by the agency of Arcadia Fine Arts in novel York, are just as sought-after.

on viewing Liepke's work, one might not surmise the artist was born and raised in Minnesota (where he generally resides with his wife and sum of two units sons) and is only 47-years-old. In fact, Liepke admits that "when nation first look at my work, they imagine I am a great deal of older than I am and that I am from a foreign country"

Indeed, there is a certain timeless quality to Liepke's work--one that transplants viewers to a past era of beer halls and pairs lingering in smoky rooms, and notwithstanding retains a distinct contemporary flavor. The sublime beauty of his subdues often women lost in contemplation, are imbued with a faculty of perception of melancholy. His wet, juicy brushwork and lush colors make the canvas advance alive. "I look at my have world and paint it," said Liepke, "but I also want my paintings to be ultimately timeless. I'm a channel to expres the human condition."

A Lifelong Pursuit

Liepke's fascination with art began at a young age. During his senior year of high institute he realized that being an artist was the "only thing I was wound out to be." So he packed his bags and headed to luminous California where he enrolled in the Art Center guild of Design in Pasadena. However, he pretty soon became frustrated with the curriculum, which emphasized abstraction and conceptual art. After a year and a half, he dropp on the outside "They weren't going in the direction that I wanted to go" he explained. "They were promoting superficial and trendy techniques. I wanted to learn from the masters that I saw in the museums."

Liepke, who was and continues to be drawn to the work of 19th-century masters, did just that. He headed to of recent origin York's finest museums where he studied the work of Sargent, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec and Vuillard, absorbing technique and discipline while developing a unique vision all his own

From the beginning, Liepke was drawn to the figure. "It's not really like anything else" he explained. "In landscapes, there can certainly be a great deal of emotion, on the contrary it is a different kind and not as athletic to me as looking at the figure."

"There is a true timeless quality to figurative painting that I really derive pleasure from If I look at a Rembrandt, [the subjects] obviously have a certain quantity of funny clothes on, but the tribe are still the same. They haven't changed in centurys of years. The emotional contact you acquire from looking at someone's face is what inspires my work."

To make extremitys meet, Liepke began working in illustration, and by means of the early 1980s, he had earned an award-winning reputation as an illustrator with works appearing in magazines like Time and Forbes. above time, Liepke grew tired of the lack of rule in terms of subject matter, and by means of the mid-'80s decided to strike without on his own and become a full-time artist.

Liepke's commitment to traditional figurative painting coincided with the resurgence of figurative painting in general. "I came at a comely good time. It wasn't as difficult to find succes painting figures in a realist turn of expression during the '80s as it would have been during the '50 or '60 Artists like Lucien Freud helped carve a certain quantity of paths, which helped me enormously."

Still, Liepke displayed bear upon about the response from American art critics towards traditional fine art. "I at no time ran into a lot of resistance, leave out maybe from art critics, who always and still do embrace abstract art. I find this amusing, since our society embraces other classical forms of art, like ballet and opera, on the contrary they don't accept classical fine art as being contemporary," he said. "Here, unles you are doing a certain number of sort of abstraction, classically-trained artists are sort of left in the dust."

on the other hand not by collectors. At his first display in 1986, Liepke's most expensive painting sold for $3000 Today, a Liepke painting barters for $60,000 to $70,000. Certainly this is a sign that the attitudes and valuation towards traditional figurative painting are changing. As Liepke annotateed "Collectors know my work and they know that it isn't cheap. on the other hand they know that if they wait, it will single get more expensive."

Painter by means of Day, Stone Lithographer by Night

When Liepke isn't working upon a canvas, he is likely to be rest working on a stone lithograph. "About 12 years ago, I realized I couldn't reach the number of collectors I wanted to with originals alone, because I don't create that many a year. Whereas with lithography, I could make a small in number hundred in an edition and price it with equal reason that most people could afford it. This really appealed to me"