His daughter Jane Swigert he told New York Times that the cause of death was heart failure.
Keane’s instantly recognizable children’s paintings, typically portrayed and described as waifs with huge, sad, dinner-plate-sized eyes, became enormously popular in the 1950s and ’60s, at first candidly and later as kitsch totems as iconic as the pink plastic flamingos.
According to various biographies, Keane began painting as a child and, at age 18, attended Traphagen School Of Design in New York City. He began painting portraits in the 1950s, showing a deliberate inclination towards kitsch even then.
The husband’s lie that Tim Buton fed on to make “Big Eyes”
Margaret’s career, or rather her second husband’s career, took off in the mid-1950s when that husband, Walter Keanebegan marketing the “big-eyed” paintings.
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Unbeknownst to Margaret, at first, Walter Keane claimed that he was the artist, and the soon-to-be-familiar signature “Keane” offers the public no evidence to the contrary. Margaret Keane she would eventually go along with the ruse, later saying that she feared for her and her daughter’s safety at the hands of the abusive Walter.
As misleading as it was, Walter’s ruse was both successful and lucrative. What he lacked in artistic talent he made up for in salesmanship: He appeared on late-night talk shows, in major magazines, and made national headlines when a “Walter Keane” painting was accepted and, following criticism from a critic of art of the New York Timeswas turned down for a featured exhibit at the New York World’s Fair from 1964.
According to him Times, prints of the paintings grossed $2 million in 1964 alone, and the originals were soon hanging in museums around the world. Andy Warhol was a fan, and celebrities like Zsa Zsa Gabor Y releasegoing by Natalie Wood Y Jerry Lewis They commissioned portraits.
Even after the couple’s separation in the mid-1960s, the Keane more or less continued the ruse, until in 1970 Margaret announced that she was the true and only artist of the works.
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During a 1986 court hearing in Hawaii, after she sued her ex-husband for defamation for his continued false claims, Margaret Keane she dramatically challenged Walter to a painting contest, quickly proving to the satisfaction of the court that she was, in fact, responsible for the “big eyes”. She won $4 million in damages, but never saw a penny of the broke Walter Keane.
The Keane’s eccentric story has proven as enduring as the paintings (the prints remain popular emblems of kitsch and nostalgia even today) and in 2014 the director Tim Burton He launched Big Eyesa biographical film written by Scott Alexander Y Larry Karaszewskiwith Amy Adams playing Margaret and Christopher Waltz like Walter. The film earned Adams a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.
Source: Ambito
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