SERPONG, ULTIMAGZ.com – Margaret Keane was the artist behind one of the most recognizeable art collections of the 1960s, paintings of children and women with huge eyes that showed up in galleries and postcards. Her “big-eyed” style became a hit, generating huge profit and hanging in museums worldwide. But there was a big secret behind it all. For years, people believed these paintings were made by her husband, Walter Keane.
Before Margaret Keane became famous, she was born Peggy Doris Hawkins in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1927. As a kid, an ear surgery left her partially deaf, leading her to pay close attention to people’s eyes to help understand what they were saying. With her mother’s support, she studied art at the Watkins Institute and later at Traphagen School of Fashion in New York, where she developed her own artistic style. Margaret Keane focused her work on women, children, and pets. Those big eyes weren’t just a gimmick to sell art because they came from something deeply personal, based on theguardian.com.
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Everything changed when Margaret married Walter Keane in 1955, a real estate salesman who liked to call himself a bohemian. Walter saw the potential to make money from her paintings and began selling them in San Francisco, while claiming to be the artist behind them. Margaret was forced to paint in secret in a home studio, while Walter talked to reporters and built himself up as the painter.
Due to Walter’s continuous promotion, the name “Keane” turned into a huge business. Cheap prints, posters, and greeting cards put the sad-eyed paintings into millions of homes, while the original paintings were brought by celebrities and shown around the world. This shows that back then, when someone else controls the story and the branding, the real artist can easily be erased, based on sandiegoreader.com.
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While Walter enjoyed the spotlight and glamorous lifestyle, Margaret spent up to 16 hours a day painting behind locked doors. What started as a money-making scheme eventually turned into a form of control. Things changed when Margaret finally left Walter and moved to Hawaii.In a 1970 radio interview, she revealed herself as the painter behind every “big-eyed” artwork. Those iconic, sad eyes had always been meant to express something deeply human. For years, people had loved Margaret Keane’s art without knowing who had really made it, based on edition.cnn.com.
The long feud finally came to a head in 1986 in a Honolulu courtroom, where Margaret sued Walter for defamation. To determine who the real artist was, the judge came up with a test. He set up two easels and gave both of them one hour to paint an original big-eyed figure. Margaret finished a detailed painting in just 53 minutes, while Walter refused to pick up a brush, claiming his shoulder suddenly hurt. It was a moment that finally prove that art and the artist can never truly be separated.
Author: Jemima Anasya R.
Editor: Kezia Laurencia
Photo: finestresullarte.info
Source: theguardian.com, sandiegoreader.com, edition.cnn.com.
