Artist and Professor Mel Leipzig to Give Open Lecture on Degas and Pippin 2/28

Acclaimed artist Mel Leipzig (of Trenton), professor of art and art history at Mercer County Community College in Trenton, will discuss two great painters as part of the college's Distinguished Lecture Series, on Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 12 noon in the Communications Building, Room 110, at the West Windsor Campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road.

Entitled “Edgar Degas and Horace Pippin: A Comparison of Greatness,” the lecture and slide show will feature French artist Edgar Degas, who was academically educated but rejected the rules of the academy, and African American artist Horace Pippin, who had no formal training yet excelled in his work.

Leipzig, a much-heralded painter, has garnered a multitude of awards and honors for his work. He was featured in ArtNews Magazine’s November 2011 issue. In recent years, Leipzig has had shows at the Pennington School, Rider University, Richard Stockton College and the West Windsor Arts Council. His works are part of the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, The White House, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.

In 2006, Leipzig was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Design in New York. His awards and recognitions include a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and a grant in painting from the National Endowment for the Arts. Leipzig studied at Cooper Union, Yale University and Pratt Institute, where he earned his M.F.A. Art critic Burton Wasserman has described him as "New Jersey's greatest living painter."

The lecture is free and open to the public. The West Windsor Campus of Mercer County Community College is located at 1200 Old Trenton Road. For more information visit www.mccc.edu.