Margaret Keane, a famous American artist and pop culture icon, is universally known as the “mother of big-eye art.” In the 1950s, Margaret’s sad-eye waif paintings captured the public’s hearts, creating a sensation; mass-marketed prints of these works became wildly popular, and were sold almost everywhere, starting in the 1960s, and continuing into the ’70s.
What makes this story unique is that during this time her ex husband took credit as the artist of all the “Big Eyed” paintings, But Walter Keane didn’t paint any of those children. His wife, Margaret Keane, did, while Walter pretended to — and took almost all of the credit.
“The eyes I draw on my children are an expression of my own deepest feelings. Eyes are windows of the soul.”
— Margaret Keane
“I was a very abused wife,” Margaret Keane told Cowan. “Psychologically abused, tremendously. I kept getting deeper and deeper in this hole, and I didn’t know how to get out.” Her only salvation was painting. She didn’t know why she painted big eyes, but she finally figured it out: She was painting her own feelings into those eyes.
It all began shortly after Margaret met Walter in San Francisco in 1954. She had painted most of her life. Walter took it up late, and (she says) was never really very good.
He displayed his street paintings alongside Margaret’s work, but it was her big-eyed children that got all the reaction. She signed them “Keane” — but Walter sold them as his own.
During an interview with UPI, Margaret revealed that she was reluctant to claim the paintings as hers in fear of her life. “He told me so many times — like brainwashed me — that if I ever told anybody he’d have me knocked off,” she explained “I really thought he would.” Margaret believed his threat because he knew “a lot of mafia people.”
It was only after Margaret moved to Hawaii and filed for divorce that she eventually took Walter to court to gain rights to her work. In front of the jury, the judge ordered them both to paint. Walter eventually told the judge his shoulder hurt and couldn’t paint, while Margaret painted her signature big-eyed waif in just under an hour.
The jury was suitably impressed, and awarded Margaret $4 million. But she never saw a dime of it. Even after the court case Margaret Keane’s Authenticity was Still being Questioned According to the artist, there are patrons who enter the gallery still convinced that her ex-husband is the creator. “People would come in the gallery and argue and say, ‘No, Walter did these things,”
Margaret’s Influence
The Power Puffdebuts featuring leads based on Keane’s “waifs” and a character named “Ms. Keane”.
Puss and Boots
Bedtime Stories- Bugsy
Tim Burton
Anyone familiar with Tim Burton’s artwork well knows that the characters in his sketches and paintings generally have big, rounded eyes with small pupils — characteristics that have been most often realized on the big-screen in the director’s stop-motion animated classics “Vincent,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Corpse Bride” and “Frankenweenie.”
What you may not know is that Burton was influenced by artist Margaret Keane’s paintings of big-eyed subjects. Burton said he was no doubt influenced early in his life by the artist’s distinct style.
Burton choose to direct the 2014 movie Big Eyes, which chronicled the career of Margaret Keane. What drew him to the project initially was the fact that Keane’s work was embraced and consumed by the general public, but then hated by the critics. The reviews of her paintings weren’t positive, but yet the exhibits continued to break records with people coming all over the world to see them. They inspired people to go to museums or pick up a paint brush.
Burton could relate to Keane because like her, his work was often reviewed unfavorable by critics, but had overwhelming positive public reaction to his movies. As the director of Big Eyes, Burton was able to relate to how critics viewed his work and brought a very personal connection to him when filming the movie‘Big Eyes’
