Eugene "Bud" Leake pronounced "Leaky" was a landscape painter and president of the Maryland Institute College of Art.
13 Facts About Eugene Leake
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Eugene Leake's work was characterized by a consistent commitment to the depiction of the landscape, not following ever-changing trends of contemporary art in the 20th century.
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Eugene Leake's paintings are imbued with an unmistakable sense of place that only one who has lived in and loved the surrounding landscape can create.
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Eugene Leake's work are heirs to the spirit of the oil sketches of English master John Constable and the early works of French landscape artist Camille Corot, both of whom insisted that painting must be based on observable facts and reflect the truth of the moment.
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Eugene Leake was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on August 31,1911, one of two sons born to Eugene W Leake and Marion Leake.
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At twenty-two, Eugene Leake traveled through the southwest and California before returning to Connecticut.
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Back in New England, Eugene Leake built a studio and made a living painting commissioned portraits and teaching art classes.
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Eugene Leake had his first one-man show at the Walker Gallery in 1937 after which he was invited to participate in national group shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum.
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In 1949 Eugene Leake became the director of The Art Center in Louisville, Kentucky and held the position for a decade.
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When Eugene Leake attended Yale University, Josef Albers had recently retired from the chair of the School of Art but continued to be a presence on campus.
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In June 1961 Eugene Leake moved to Maryland after graduating from Yale to "take on the task of reviving the nearly moribund Maryland Institute," as its new President.
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Eugene Leake was for 13 years president of the Maryland Institute College of Art, an institution he almost single-handedly remade from a cobwebbed, struggling vocational training academy into one of the most respected art schools in the nation.
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In 1974 Eugene Leake retired from his role as president of the Maryland Institute College of Art.