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BY ABEL DELGADO
When you're in front of a Ma colm Liepke painting, it s a most
impossible to not have an emotional response, lntensiry ll
features a woman riveting you to the spot r,vith her stare, whrle
her hands are posed in front of her almost defensively, ls she
inviting viewers in or warding ihem off? Alone Together shows
a woman embraclng a man who's staring off into space,
distracted-or maybe alienated-from her. ls it mornentary
dlstraction or a sign he's lost interest in her? ln Seduction in
Blues and Greens, a couple lies in bed, The man is asleep, the
woman isn't. Her expression is pensive but it's not clear what
:ff,,,-9!"tio n' oil on can-vas, 70 x 32
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she's th nking-maybe she has tired of him and is focus ng her
seduct ve gaze on sorneone we can't see in the pa nt ng.
This focus on ernot onal content is clearly reminiscent of the
works of masters I ke Degas and Veazquez, among others, Not
a surprise-these legends were Liepke's "teachers." His formal
training at the Ad College of Design in Pasadena, California only
lasted a year and a half. The school's emphasis on conceptual
ad didn't work for the young adist, who moved to New York
in the iate 1970s after dropping out, While working as a
commercial adrst to support himself, Liepke studied the masters
of f guratrve parnt ng in museums a l aroLrnd the city. " He earned
compositiorr from Degas, depict on of ernot on from Toulouse-
Lautrec. flatness of magery from Japanese rvoodblock printers
and flesh tones from Veldzqaez, notes Steven Diamant of
Arcadia F ne Afts rn New York City, wh ch represents Liepke.
By the 1980s, Liepke's commerctal work had made it onto
the covers of magazines like Time, Newsweek, Forbes and
Sporls lllustrated, He turned to fine art full-time in 19BO and
h s work rmmediately resonated with buyers: his first one-man
exhibition completely sold out. Srnce then, Liepke has continued
to be sriccessir both crt ca ly and commercially.
The acpea of h s oantings stafts with his immense skil .
readiy ev deni rn hls ush brushwork, compelling composition
and vivid pa etie, Yet sk I alone, as Diamant observes. "is empty
and unsat sfyng. The power rn Lepke's paintngs comes
frorr the v,ray he uses this skil to "depict the entire spectrum
of human emotion," explains Diamant. The ultrmate effect ls a
feellng that each canvas is a glrmpse into the hidden emotional
lives of the sublects, a meaningful moment that Liepke captures
as if he were a rovrng photojournallst lnstead of a painter.