I thought it would be pertinent to talk about one of my favorite artists from the Beat era. Margaret Keane is the creator of "Keane Eyes" or "Big Eyed Waifs" and has been painting for over 60 years.
She was born in Nashville in 1927 and loved to paint as a child. The beginning of the popularity of her work was in San Francisco’s North Beach in the 1950s.
Margaret’s work drew little accolades from art critics but was loved and admired by the world. Andy Warhol said, “I think what Keane has done is terrific! If it were bad, so many people wouldn’t like it.” Keane would soon be one of the most successful living artist in the early 60s.
Margaret’s art gained wide favor and started a big-eyed movement in the early 60s, "influencing a large crop of big-eyed artist such as Lee, Gig, Maio, Ozz Franca, Igor Pantuhoff, and Eve." Her designs also influenced a bunch of children's toys and cartoons, such as the Powerpuff Girls, and inspired many modern neo-artists like Tim Burton.
One of Margaret’s favorite artists is Amedeo Modigliani, and his art has had a major influence in the way she’s painted women since circa 1959. "Throughout the years Margaret has also been influenced by Van Gogh, Henri Rousseau, Leonardo da Vinci, Gustav Klimt, Edgar Degas, Picasso, Sandro Botticelli and Paul Gauguin." Each of these artist have influenced Margaret’s use of color, dimension and composition. Along with these great and awe inspiring artist, Margaret’s own creative genius of Big Eyes and women has continued to influence and inspire countless artist today.
At one point she was asked to paint a portrait for the giant UNICEF gallery at the worlds fair, but the commissioners found her work to be too "haunting" for the public.
However what she is perhaps more contemporarily known for is the scandal with her husband, when they married in the 50's her husband insisted her art wouldn't sell because she was a woman. He took control of her art and her life, and it wasn't until after their separation, with the support of friends and family that Keane took her husband to court in 1990 to fight for the ownership of her work and her name. She was awarded both, as well as $4 million in damages, and has since then been commissioned by an overwhelming amount of people to paint for them. Last year, Tim Burton wrote the biographic film Big Eyes, at the permission of Keane, to recount her life as a mother, her art, and finally becoming the rightful owner of her work.
My mother is an artist and when I was little she use to show me portraits by her favorite painters and I would try to recreate them on my tiny easel with Crayola paint. Her favorites and mine were Georgia O'Keefe and Margaret Keane and it wasn't until I got older that I found out about the struggle she went through to get credit for her incredible work. I think she's a brilliant artist, and she still paints every day even though she's in her 90's!!
https://keane-eyes.com/about-margaret/
http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2014/11/robert-moses-rejected-this-terrifying.html
No comments:
Post a Comment