Artist margaret kin children with big eyes. Walter Keane - a talented manipulator and businessman

There is such a thing in science and art as "breakthrough". A vivid example of a breakthrough is the work of Pushkin, the charm of great poetry that has not aged for centuries. Today, for example, I came across such a funny dialogue on the Internet.
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What can I say, well, not all contemporaries of the "sun of Russian poetry" managed to break through the years and distances like this to the hearts of teenagers of the twenty-first century ...
In the same row with Alexander Sergeevich, the names are Andrey Rublev, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Gaudi, Dali, Bosch.
The phenomenon of a breakthrough through time sometimes happens to our contemporaries, and it is always very interesting.
It seemed to me that the artist Margaret Keane is just such an example.

The enchanting glory of the artist Walter Keane in the middle of the last century shocked America in the 50s. His paintings, which depicted sad children with huge, lively, talking, even screaming eyes, were extremely popular all over the world.

The secret from the whole world was that in fact the paintings belong to the brush ... of Walter's wife, fragile, timid and silent Margaret. But Walter himself at first did not understand what kind of treasure he practically picked up in the alley of the city park, where a lonely divorced woman with a small daughter painted portraits of passers-by for a penny in order to feed the girl and pay for the cheapest room in the world. He certainly made sooo big eyes when he decided to sell one of her paintings at an auction, where they paid for it ... several thousand dollars! Since then, the enterprising Walter Keane began a new life. He quickly married Margaret, who was stunned by the happiness that suddenly fell in his image, and explained to her that she should draw pictures, and he, using his reputation and connections, would profitably sell them, as if they were his own creations. And so they both will solve absolutely all their problems! How shocked the public was when they found out that the author of the trendy paintings was Walter Keane's wife, Margaret Keane.

Here in the photo is the real Mr. Keane and the actor who played him in the movie "Big Eyes"

Tired of her husband's humiliation, Margaret sued him and told the whole world who the real author of the works was. The very way in which the artist proved her right to intellectual property is interesting - right in the courtroom, both of them, Walter and Margaret, painted from the picture. Further - it is clear.
Margaret Keane, when her secret was already out

Recently, the film "Big Eyes" was released - a biography of Margaret Keane, the story of her torment, imprisonment in her own house, fear for her life and the life of her daughter. The film was shot for a long seven years, and this is a rarity for American filmmaking. Check it out if you are touched by this life story.


These photos show the real Margaret, who is now alive and looking great, and the lovely talented actress who played her in the movie.


A stunning example of a very beautiful old age without silicone and operations, but solely due to the unique talent, inner purity and joy of creativity.

And from myself, I wanted to add specifically for our puppet site.

In the paintings of Margaret Keane, the origins of the creation of some of the modern dolls that are now popular, in particular, Sue Lin Wang and Blythe dolls, are very noticeable. And the phenomenon of a breakthrough in the art of the doll cannot go unnoticed. Perhaps, thanks to the work of Margaret Keane, someone will discover new dolls with amazing big beautiful eyes. Sometimes I hear opinions that the eyes of these children are frightening. It seems to me that they do not scare, but they say. And silently. One can only guess what hurt so much in the soul of this fragile woman, but. After all, her tragic story ended in a world triumph, which means that everything was not in vain. Or maybe so - Mrs. Keen knew the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and applied the "wolf theory". It is important for a child to see everything! “Why do you have such big eyes? To see you better." And if you see a lot, you know a lot! Therefore, these eyes do not frighten me, for me they, like, for example, Bosch's paintings, are only a breakthrough in the art of depicting the world. What the world is made of.

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USA, dir. Tim Burton Cast: Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Terence Stamp, Jason Schwartzman, Krysten Ritter, Danny Huston.

In 1958, Margaret Ulbrich, having taken her daughter, left her first husband and moved to San Francisco, where she met Walter Keane, an artist who chose cozy Parisian quarters as his main theme. Margaret herself also draws: she is excellent at children with exaggeratedly large eyes. The creators quickly converge, get married, Walter arranges their first joint exhibition - at which, not without surprise, he realizes that “big eyes” are of interest to people much more than his streets ...

The introduction to the film promises an incredible story, after which irritation from such a “statement” pulses in my head for a long time: “Well, what could be incredible here? the real plot comes into force, the viewer's eyes expand more and more, gradually equalizing the audience who came to the cinema with the children painted by Margaret Keane. So, before reading this review, it is important to understand: do you want to know the main "trick" in advance - or be surprised directly during the session?

The fact is that the husband - somehow it turns out by itself - gives out the works of his wife as his own. Motivating this by the fact that women's art is not for sale, and besides, it is not enough to draw - one must be able to "turn around in society", and Margaret is by nature too modest to also perform "representative functions". Thus begins a decade of grand hoax that turns Walter Keane into a global superstar at the expense of others.

Video for the film "Big Eyes" with the participation of the artist Margaret Keane

The pseudo-author of "big eyes" makes a decisive bet on the art of PR. Enlisting the support of a local journalist, Walter, at every opportunity, gives "his" works to the mayor, the ambassador of the Soviet Union, or a visiting Hollywood celebrity. Despite the fact that critics flatly refuse to recognize Keane's creations as something serious, dismissively calling them despicable kitsch, people like the amazing images of children. However, the paintings themselves are expensive - but everyone readily snaps up free posters; this is how the idea of ​​a large-scale production of postcards, calendars and posters for sale was born. What is familiar now, half a century ago was a novelty - and "eyes" are becoming a trend that defined the era.

The whole horror of the situation shown in the film lies in the fact that the world really had no idea about anything, but we see everything from the very beginning - and from the position of today we absolutely cannot both understand the main character and justify her timidity and dragged on for years confusion. This fearful indulgence turns out to be worse than the crime itself - and the question of why Margaret indulged the myth weaved by the deceitful husband is not so easy for the modern viewer to answer. That's how strong the conviction was in the women of that time, driven into the heads of the family and religion, that the man is the center of their little universe, and therefore his decisions are undeniable, and his opinion is indisputable (and how can one not recall the fate, whose path in art also passed under full control of the spouse!). And one can only smile bitterly at the fact that the heroine is led to the light of truth by the Hawaiian Jehovah's Witnesses, towards whom we are wary, but it turns out that they can also be useful!..

The story of "Big Eyes" was adapted for cinema by screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karatsevsky, whose strong point is just such biopics, in which real twists of fate are a hundred times more incredible than any fiction. Suffice it to mention two films by Milos Forman - "The People vs. Larry Flynt" and "The Man in the Moon", and "Ed Wood", the best, according to common sense, Tim Burton's film. Taking on their new script, Burton to some extent himself acted as a conditional Walter Keane - because with this thing the co-authors were finally going to make their debut in directing, and the director who intervened, it turns out, took away all the well-deserved glory from them. How it happened is another question, but it is obvious that Scott and Larry again brought Tim to the right path, allowing him to take another and undoubted creative peak.

Here it should be noted that Tim Burton, of course, is a "head" - but a head that has long been working on self-repetition. With all the love for the master, one cannot help but admit that, probably, only children (who made the Alice in Wonderland box office) or absolutely unconditional fans (who recognized even the darkest Sweeney Todd) could watch his latest films without pain. To be honest, I myself love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but still, as a real, major artist, Burton did not show himself for more than ten years, as if something broke in him after Big Fish, which became his deeply personal masterpiece.

Song by Lana Del Rey from the movie "Big Eyes"

It is all the more pleasant to see that the big and beloved director is back in great shape. Perhaps he should have long ago abandoned his trademark "tricks", from black humor, from all kinds of freaks as heroes - and come to a similar story in which realism is surprisingly combined with phantasmagoria. What is most striking is that this "new Burton", which suddenly changed its landmarks in such a drastic manner, is very similar to the "old" one, whom we once, more than a quarter of a century ago, fell in love with all our hearts.

Of course, this "return" was extremely contributed not only by the writers, but also by the actors. Amy Adams once again proved herself to be one of the leading actresses of her generation, creating a believable portrait of a woman who has never known freedom, and who goes too far, can only reveal her secret to a poodle. But do not be surprised that - in accordance with the plot - Christoph Waltz steals all the laurels from her, literally bathing in the role he got.

Despite the two Oscars received, Waltz still causes a certain distrust among many: they say that he succeeded perfectly in one image, after which only his banal replication went. But Walter Keane is nothing like Hans Landa or Dr. Schulz! The actor draws his new character first as a charming lover-hero (and these are already completely different colors!), Step by step turning the swindler into the American analogue of Ostap Bender (after all, Walter also “dedicated” himself to the starving children of the whole world). The final scene of the trial with his participation turns into a hilarious attraction - and one must see how the accused acts as his own lawyer, running around with questions from place to place! .. The successful solution of this role once again proves that a good artist often also needs a special director which would allow him to discover previously invisible facets of his talent.

In conclusion, we note that an amazing film ends surprisingly: Margaret Keane, it turns out, is alive and well, moreover, she is still painting. It turns out that all this was quite recently, very close - and this thick dot makes our eyes even larger.

Big Eyes is out on January 8th in limited release; The wide release will start next week.

January 25th, 2016 04:59 am

The other day I watched Tim Burton's movie "Big Eyes", and was so captured by the plot that I forgot about everything. The film tells about real events in the life of the artist Margaret Keane, who for many years concealed, intimidated by her second husband Walter Keane, the authorship of her paintings, which were sold under his name.

The tragedy of a woman in art

Walter Keane spotted a young girl, in whose pictures individuality was guessed. He himself only dabbled in painting, drawing the streets of Paris (as it turned out later, just smearing with a brush and putting his signature under other people's paintings). He made a living by selling houses. He had a real merchant's product. He could sell anything to anyone.

Along with his works, he began to exhibit his wife's works in local cafes, passing them off as his own. After all, she bore his last name, and therefore signed "Kin". Upon learning of her husband's dishonesty, Margaret tried with tears in her eyes to explain to him how mean and dishonest of him, but he convinced her that society was biased towards "women's art."

For many years they managed to lead everyone by the nose, opening more and more successful exhibitions. Walter Keane developed the business of selling his wife's paintings in such a way that he sold not only the canvases themselves, but also their reproductions, posters and even postcards.

The woman remained in the shadow of her husband for many years, even tried to change her own style of painting, some of which she signed with her own name. Even incomplete, but only the initials of the name, while adding the name of the spouse. She partly copied the style of Modigliani, only on her canvases the portraits of women invariably had sad faces, reflecting the tragedy that the artist had carried in herself for many years.

Only in 1964 did she have the courage to leave her husband, leaving with her daughter to live in Hawaii. It took another 6 years to tell people the truth. Walter defended his version of events to the end, even in court, where he refused to paint a portrait of a child with big eyes, inventing a pain in his shoulder. Margaret painted the portrait, thereby proving her authorship of all the other works that for a long time were considered the property of her ex-husband.

This story once again proves that it is difficult for a woman to make her way everywhere, but this does not mean that one must resign herself to fate and silently endure humiliation. You need to defend your rights, even if you are afraid or intimidated, otherwise you risk losing your individuality and self-respect!

Margaret Keane is a famous American artist who is known for her amazing portraits of women and children with big eyes.

Margaret D. H. Keane was born in 1927 in Nashville, Tennessee. Her paintings became popular in the 50s, but for a long time were sold under the name of her husband Walter Keane. Since in those days there was a prejudiced attitude towards women's art in society, and no one took it seriously, it was decided to pass off the artist's husband as the author. Only in 1986, after a divorce and a third marriage, Margaret Keane decided and announced that all the paintings, the author of which Walter was still considered to be, were in fact written by her. Since Walter refused to acknowledge this fact, Margaret sued him. After much deliberation, the judge offered to paint a portrait of a child with big eyes right in the courtroom. Walter cited shoulder pain, and it only took Margaret 53 minutes to submit the completed work. The court recognized Margaret Keane as the author of all the paintings and ordered the payment of compensation of $ 4 million. Four years later, the Federal Court of Appeals overturned the compensation, but left the authorship to Margaret.

Tim Burton, a famous director who was impressed by the story of a talented artist, made a film called "Big Eyes", which tells about the life of Margaret Keane, her family and her paintings. The film was released on wide screens in 2014, became very popular, received many positive reviews and won the Golden Globe Award in the Best Actress category.