Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary 2022: Malcolm Liepke
Overview
D4
American artist Malcolm Liepke's dynamic and richly-coloured works give viewers a glimpse into intimate moments of sensual pleasure and introspection. In many of these close-cropped paintings, viewers get the sense that they are observing a private moment. Others show wider scenes that envelop the viewer in rich colours and thick surface impasto. Above all, Liepke wants to capture emotion in his subjects -- "truthfully represent[ing] human feelings” is the artist's “ultimate challenge." He does this through technique as well as facial expressions, postures, and compositions.
Born in 1953 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Liepke considers himself first and foremost a “figure painter” who “use[s] figures to express what I want to say." He studied fine art in Pasadena, California at the Art Center College of Design and later moved to New York, where his artistic influences included paintings by Diego Velázquez, John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
