Artist Mel Leipzig, the 'Chekhov of Trenton', Has Died at 90

"He never painted from photographs, preferring to practice what he described in past interviews as "designing with reality." Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, he rendered his peers, family, and students with feverish realism. He painted artists in their studios, academic peers buried beneath paper and books at their desks, and actors bathed in the spotlight. Writing in the Star-Ledger in 2008, critic Dan Bischoff observed that "everything in a Leipzig is painted with an almost hallucinogenic intensity of detail, just as he sees it.""

"Born in Brooklyn in 1935, he showed an early interest in art education, studying at Cooper Union with modern landscape painter Neil Welliver and later earned his BFA at Yale University under Bauhaus legend Josef Albers. He went on to receive his master's degree from Pratt Institute and was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study in Paris, where he hitchhiked across Europe to paint-an experience that left an indelible mark on his practice."

Melvin Donald 'Mel' Leipzig died on November 1 at age 90, exactly 18 years after his wife Mary Jo Michelessi. Born in Brooklyn in 1935, he painted people and places with gravitas for more than half a century. He never painted from photographs and preferred 'designing with reality.' Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, he rendered peers, family, and students with feverish realism, depicting artists in studios, academics at desks, and actors in spotlight. He studied at Cooper Union, earned a BFA at Yale under Josef Albers, received a master's from Pratt, and won a Fulbright to study in Paris, where he hitchhiked across Europe to paint. From 1968 to 2013 he taught at Mercer County Community College and founded the Trenton Artist Workshop Association in 1979.

Read at ARTnews.com