After the release of the film Big Eyes by the great Tim Burton, interest in the American artist of the second half of the 20th century, Margaret Keane, increased with renewed vigor.

Margaret Keane is an American artist who gained fame and recognition for her depiction of exaggerated large eyes and litigation regarding the authenticity of her work. Margaret's husband Walter Keane, for a long time sold paintings created by Margaret, signing them with his name. Being a good advertiser and a skilled businessman, Big Eyes paintings became so popular that the family managed to open their own gallery. At some point, Margaret got tired of the lies and the constant need to hide herself and her work. She is divorcing Walter and is filing a lawsuit claiming that all of Walter's paintings created over the course of ten years are her own. Considering the case in court, in order to determine the true author of Big Eyes, the judge suggested that everyone, within an hour, right there in the courtroom, draw one work. Walter refused to paint, citing a sore shoulder. Margaret drew another Big Eye in fifty-three minutes. The case was decided in favor of Margaret Keane, with four million dollars in damages.

Stylistically, the work of Margaret Keane can be divided into two stages. The first stage is the time when she lived with Walter and signed her works with his name. This stage is characterized by dark tones and sad faces. After Margaret's escape to Hawaii, joining the Witnesses of the Jehovah's Church and restoring her name, the style of Margaret's work also changes. Pictures become brighter, faces, albeit with Big eyes, become happy and peaceful.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the paintings of Walter Keane became incredibly popular in the United States. They most often depicted children and women with exaggeratedly large and sad eyes.

In 1965, Walter Keane was already named one of the most successful artists of the time. Many celebrities commissioned their portraits from Keene, which were invariably executed in an unusual and original style, later called big eyes (big eyes). Keene's work has entered private and public art collections around the world.
In an interview with the famous American magazine Life, Keane stated that the inspiration to draw sad and thoughtful children with big eyes came from memories of children who survived the horrors of war.

A Sound of Thunder!

In 1970, Margaret Keane, the wife of Walter Keane, whom he divorced in 1965, stated that she was the author of the famous paintings!
Authorship controversy continued until Walter, in an interview with USA Today, claimed that Margaret made this assumption because she thought Walter was dead.
Margaret sued. The judge demanded that the ex-spouses, in front of the jury, draw a portrait of the child in a characteristic style. Walter pleaded a shoulder pain and refused, while Margaret painted the picture in 53 minutes. After subsequent litigation, the court recognized the authorship of Margaret Keane. The court awarded $4 million in compensation, but Margaret never received a cent of it.

So the world learned about a talented artist with a unique style!

During 10 years of marriage to Walter Keane, Margaret was a hostage to her talent. By nature, Margaret was reserved and shy, never contradicted her husband, and felt happy only when she painted. Walter, the marketing genius, took advantage of this. He sold his wife's paintings under his own name. One day, Walter threatened to kill her and her daughter from her first marriage if she told who the true author of the paintings was. Until 1970, Walter Keane continued to receive millions in royalties from the sale of paintings, their reproductions, printing postcards, etc., until he lost the court to Margaret.

The first thing that attracts attention in the works of Margaret Keane is her large eyes, filled with many emotions. According to her, in them she wanted to reflect the eternal questions of mankind about the meaning of life, which she herself asked herself: why is there grief and death if God is good, why do we live, what is the meaning of life ...

source dailylife.com
edited by Alem Gallery
photo found online.

BIG EYES.
Tim Burton film

A great connoisseur and collector of Margaret's paintings is director Tim Burton. In 2014, his film "Big Eyes" was released. Margaret Keane divorces her husband, takes her daughter with her and goes to the big city to conquer the peaks. There, seduced by pleasant speeches, she marries the less fortunate artist Walter Keane. And he, at first with the best of intentions, gave the authorship of the "big-eyed" paintings of Margaret as his own. So they caused a more pleasant impression on critics and buyers, besides, Margaret knew so little about the world of art ... Only now all the glory goes to her husband, and the artist, like a slave in the galleys, paints popular canvases for days ..

In addition to questions about emancipation, the enslavement of the creator, building an image, the picture opens the question of when does art become just stamping? Margaret Keane became one of the founders of pop art - a bright and so popular art form among the general public. Surprisingly, the phenomenon of pop art would not have happened if the ingenious artist had not had the ingenious image maker and salesman Walter. And even if it all ended in the cruel exploitation of his own wife, without him Margaret simply would not get such a take-off and not only because of male prejudices - she did not have that envy, that desire for fame, recognition that Walter was filled with.

The film opens up space for a very interesting discussion about marital relations. Charming Walter becomes a monster ... but isn't Margaret herself allowing him to do this? Is it not with the benefits earned largely thanks to him, she then comfortably exists and creates. In fact, would Walter seem such a monster to us if we met him in real life?

An interesting fact: in a cameo role in the film, you can see the living Margaret Keane herself (the old woman on the bench). Moreover, she approved the candidacy of Amy Adams to fulfill herself in her youth and was very pleased with her game. And one can only admire the performance of Christoph Waltz!

For all its intimacy, the film "Big Eyes" turned out to be very colorful and not at all simple, as it seems at first glance.

Abbreviated Alem Gallery
full text of the article here: http://kinotime.org/news/retsenziya-na-film-bolshie-glaza

Margaret D. H. Keane is an American artist best known for her portraits of women and children, which are characterized by exaggerated large eyes. Margaret was born in 1927 in Tennessee and continues to create her paintings to this day.

In the 60s of the XX century, she sold works under the name of her husband Walter Keane. Who was a skilled businessman and a good advertiser. The paintings gained worldwide fame and were published on everything that was possible. The Keene family even opened their own gallery, but at some point Margaret got tired of the constant lies and the need to hide herself and her work. Therefore, in 1986, she officially declared the true authorship of her works, after which she was forced to speak in court against her ex-husband. During the hearing, the judge demanded that Margaret and Walter paint a portrait of a child with characteristic large eyes; Walter Keane refused, citing shoulder pain, and it took Margaret only 53 minutes to write the paper. The court recognized the authorship of the artist, after which she received $ 4 million in compensation.

The secret of big eyes. Big eyes, why?

Always "Why, why?". These questions, it seems to me, were later reflected in the eyes of the children in my paintings, which seem to be addressed to the whole world. That's why babies have big eyes. The gaze was described as penetrating into the soul. They seemed to reflect the spiritual alienation of most people today, their longing for something outside of what this system offers.

Stylistically, the work of Margaret Keane can be divided into two stages. The first stage is the time when she lived with Walter and signed her works with his name. This stage is characterized by dark tones and sad faces. After Margaret's escape to Hawaii, joining the Witnesses of the Jehovah's Church and restoring her name, the style of Margaret's work also changes. Pictures become brighter, faces, albeit with Big eyes, become happy and peaceful.

Posters of Margaret's paintings were distributed in millions of copies, and decorated the interior of many houses. We recommend that you read about how best to decorate the interior with paintings in this article:

Margaret and her husband currently live in Northern California. Margaret continues to read the Bible every day, she is now 87 years old and now has a cameo role as an old woman sitting on a bench.

The biography of Margaret Keane formed the basis of the Tim Burton film Big Eyes, which was released in Russia on January 8, 2015.

“I hope the film helps people never lie. Never! One tiny lie can turn into terrible, scary things."

Quotes by Margaret Keane

"Stand up for your rights, be brave, and don't be afraid."

“I drew what was in my heart and I think it touches the hearts of other people. We are all born with this desire to know why we are here and God is here, and those big eyes were looking for answers.”

Paintings by Margaret Keane

In the early 1960s, few people knew about the American artist Margaret Keane, but her husband Walter Keane basked in the waves of success. At that time, it was his authorship that was attributed to sentimental portraits of sad children with eyes like saucers, which probably became one of the best-selling art objects in the Western world. You can love them or call them mediocre daubs, but they have undoubtedly carved their own niche in American pop culture. Over time, of course, it was revealed that the big-eyed children were actually drawn by Walter Keane's wife, Margaret, who worked in virtual slavery, supporting her husband's success. Her story formed the basis of the new biopic directed by Tim Burton "Big Eyes".

It all started in Berlin in 1946. A young American named Walter Keane came to Europe to learn the art of painting. During that difficult time, he more than once watched the unfortunate big-eyed children fighting furiously for the remnants of food found in the garbage. He would later write: “As if driven by deep despair, I sketched these dirty, ragged little victims of the war, with their bruised minds and bodies, tangled hair and sniffing noses. This is where my life as an artist began in earnest.”

Fifteen years later, Keane became a sensation in the art world. The American one-story suburb had just begun to grow, and millions of people suddenly had a mass of empty space on the walls that needed to be filled with something. Those who wanted to decorate their home with optimistic fantasies chose pictures of dogs playing poker. But most liked something more melancholic. And they preferred Walter's sad, big-eyed kids. Some of the children in the paintings were holding poodles with the same huge and sad eyes. Others sat alone in the flower meadows. Sometimes they were dressed as harlequins or ballerinas. And they all seemed so innocent and searching.

Walter himself was by no means melancholic. According to his biographers, Adam Parfrey and Cletus Nelson, he was always a drinker, loved women and himself. Here, for example, is how Walter describes his first meeting with Margaret in his 1983 memoir Keane's World: "I love your pictures," she told me. You are the greatest artist I have ever met in my life. The kids at your work are so sad. It hurts me to look at them. The sadness that you depict on the faces of children is so alive that I want to touch them. "No," I replied, "never touch my paintings." This imaginary conversation probably took place at an outdoor art exhibition in San Francisco in 1955. Walter was then still an unknown artist. He would not have become a phenomenon in the next few years, if not for this acquaintance. On the evening of the same day, according to his memoirs, Margaret told him: "You are the best lover in the world." And soon they got married.

As for Margaret herself, her memories of their first meeting are quite different. But it's true, Walter was all charm and completely blew her away at that show in 1955. The first two years of their marriage flew happily and cloudlessly, but then everything changed dramatically. The center of Walter's universe in the mid-1950s was the beatnik club The Hungry i in San Francisco. While comedians such as Lenny Bruce and Bill Cosby performed on stage, Keane sold his paintings of big-eyed children in front of the entrance. One evening Margaret decided to go to the club with him. Walter told her to sit back in the corner while he talked animatedly to the buyers, showing the paintings. And then one of the visitors approached Margaret and asked: “Do you also draw?” She was very surprised and she was suddenly struck by a terrible conjecture: “Is he really passing off her work as his own?” And so it turned out. He told his patrons three boxes of lies. And she painted pictures with big-eyed children, and every single one, it was Margaret. Walter may have seen enough of the sad, exhausted children in post-war Berlin, but he definitely didn’t draw them, simply because he didn’t know how. Margaret was beside herself with rage. When the couple returned home, she demanded that this deception be stopped immediately. But in the end, nothing happened. For the next decade, Margaret remained silent and nodded in respectful admiration as Walter taunted journalists that he was the best eye artist since El Greco. What happened between the spouses? Why did she agree to this? On that ill-fated evening upon his return from Hungry i, Walter declared: “We need money. People are more likely to buy a painting if they think they are dealing directly with the artist. They wouldn't like to know that I can't draw and it's all my wife's art. And now it's too late. Since everyone is sure that I draw big eyes, and then we suddenly say that it is you, this will confuse everyone, they will start suing us. He offered his wife an elementary method for solving the problem: "Teach me how to draw big-eyed children." And she tried, but it turned out to be an impossible task. Nothing worked out for Walter, and in his annoyance he accused his wife of not teaching him well. Margaret felt that she had fallen into a trap. Of course, she thought about leaving her husband, but she was afraid to end up without a livelihood with a little daughter in her arms. Therefore, Margaret decided not to muddy the waters, but to quietly go with the flow.

By the early 1960s, prints and postcards of Keane's drawings were selling in the millions. Almost every store had sales racks from which huge eyes looked at customers. Stars such as Natalie Wood, Joan Crawford, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis and Kim Novak bought original works. Margaret herself did not see the money. She just painted. Although, by that time the family had moved into a spacious house with a swimming pool, gates and servants. Therefore, she did not have to worry about anything, she was only required to draw. And Walter enjoyed the rays of glory and the delights of social life. “Almost always three or four people swam naked in our pool,” he boastfully recalls in his memoirs. Everyone slept with each other. Sometimes I went to bed, and there were already three girls waiting for me in bed. The Beach Boys Maurice Chevalier and Howard Keel visited Walter, but Margaret rarely saw any of the celebrities because she painted 16 hours a day. According to her, even the servants did not know how things really were, because the door to her studio was always locked, and curtains hung on the windows. When Walter wasn't home, he called every hour to make sure Margaret hadn't gone anywhere. It looked a lot like jail time. She had no friends, and she preferred not to know anything about her husband's love affairs, and she already didn't give a damn about it. Walter, like a capricious customer, constantly pressured her to work more productively: either draw a child in a clown costume, or make two on a rocking horse, and quickly. Margaret has become something of an assembly line.

One day, Walter came up with the idea of ​​a huge painting, his masterpiece, which would show off in the UN building or somewhere else. Margaret had only a month to work. This "masterpiece" was called "Tomorrow forever." It showed hundreds of big-eyed children of various faiths with traditionally sad looks, standing in a column that stretched to the horizon. The organizers of the 1964 World's Fair in New York hung the painting in the Education Pavilion. Walter was very proud of this achievement. He was so puffed up with his own importance that he told in his memoirs about how the late grandmother told him in a dream: “Michelangelo proposed to include you in our chosen circle, claiming that your masterpiece“ Tomorrow Forever ”will forever live in the hearts and people's minds, like his work in the Sistine Chapel."

Art critic John Canaday probably never dreamed of Michelangelo, because in his New York Times review of Tomorrow Forever, he wrote: worse than average for all of Keane's work." Wounded by such a response, the organizers of the World Exhibition hastened to remove the painting from the exhibition. “Walter was furious,” Margaret recalls. - It hurt me when nasty things were said about the paintings. When people claimed it was nothing more than sentimental nonsense. Some of them could not even look at them without disgust. I don't know where the negative reaction comes from. After all, many people loved them! They were liked by small children and even babies.” In the end, Margaret fenced herself off from other people's opinions. "I'll just draw what I want," she told herself. Judging by the artist's stories about her gloomy life, creative inspiration simply had nowhere to come from. She herself claims that these sad children were in fact her deep feelings, which she could not express in any other way.

After ten years of marriage, eight of which were hell for a wife, the couple divorced. Margaret promised Walter that she would continue to paint for him. And she kept her word for a while. But having made two or three dozen paintings with big eyes, she suddenly became bolder, deciding to step out of the shadows. And in October 1970, Margaret told her story to a reporter for the UPI news agency. Walter immediately went on the offensive, swearing that the big eyes were his work, and generously poured insults, calling Margaret "a horny alcoholic and psychopath", whom, according to him, he once caught having sex with several car parking attendants at once. “He was really crazy,” Margaret recalls. “I couldn’t believe he hated me so much.”

Margaret became a Jehovah's Witness. She moved to Hawaii and began painting big-eyed children swimming in the azure sea with tropical fish. In these Hawaiian paintings, you can see that cautious smiles began to appear on the faces of the children. Walter's later life was not so happy. He moved into a fishing hut in La Jolla, California, and began to drink from morning to evening. To several reporters who were still interested in her fate, he stated that Margaret had conspired with Jehovah's Witnesses to deceive him. One USA Today journalist ran a story about Walter's plight in which a purported artist claimed that his ex-wife said she painted some of his paintings because she thought he was already dead. Margaret sued Walter for libel. The judge demanded that both of them draw a child with big eyes, right there, in the courtroom. Margaret took 53 minutes to work. But Walter refused, complaining of a pain in his shoulder. Of course, Margaret won the lawsuit. She sued her ex-husband for $ 4 million, but did not see a penny of them, because Walter drank everything away. A forensic psychologist diagnosed him with a mental condition called delusional disorder. This meant that Keane was not at all cunning, he was sincerely convinced that he was the author of the paintings.

Walter died in 2000. In recent years, he has given up alcohol. In his memoirs, Keane wrote that sobriety was his "new awakening away from the world of drinkers, sexy babes, parties, and art buyers." From which it is easy to conclude that he greatly yearned for those cheerful days.

By the 1970s, large eyes had fallen out of favor. Monotonous pictures with sad children, in the end, became boring to the public. The unscrupulous Woody Allen put an end to it by making fun of big eyes in his film Sleeper, where he depicted a ridiculous example of a future world in which they were revered.

And now there is a renaissance. Tim Burton, who has several originals in his art collection, directed the biopic Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. The film was released in 2014. The real Margaret Keane, now 89, even has a cameo in the film: a little old lady sitting on a park bench. Surely after the premiere, the public will re-interest in paintings with big-eyed sad children. Many representatives of the modern generation were not even familiar with this history until now. And, as usual, the opinions of the public about the work will be divided. Some will contemptuously call the paintings sugary hack-work, while others will gladly hang one of the sad-eyed reproductions on the wall of their home.

This post was inspired by watching a Tim Burton movie. For those who are interested in this story, I advise you to watch the movie Big Eyes.

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 film.


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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