Obituary: Margaret Keane

 Margaret Keane, the painter on numerous paintings depicting wide-eyed children, has died at the age of 94.  Prints of her paintings sold by the millions during the 1960s especially.  "Serious" critics didn't take her work seriously at all; you could call her the Thomas Kinkade of  her day.  However, she had many fans including yours truly and Andy Warhol.

There were other "big eye" artists during that era, with Girard Goodenow (1912-1984) being especially prominent.  He is the one who went by the handle "Gig" and painted wide-eyed cats and dogs.  I have two sets of those paintings.  They were sold as print sets in magazines and newspaper inserts.

As for Margaret Keane, her career is notable because while she did all the work with her creations, she had a con artist and jerk of a husband who took ALL the credit for those paintings.  This became a big bone of contention in their divorce in 1965.  

Snip:

After divorcing Walter in 1965, Keane moved from California to Hawaii and began publicly taking credit for her work. When her former husband rejected the claim, she famously arranged a "paint-off" in San Francisco's Union Square, though he declined the challenge.

In 1986, he was again asked to prove he could recreate the paintings' distinctive style -- this time in front of a jury. Keane had sued him (and USA Today) for libel in a Honolulu court, after he continued to claim credit. The judge challenged both Keane and her ex-husband to paint a large-eyed child, though the latter declined, citing a shoulder injury. She completed a painting for the court in under an hour.

Although she won in court, she didn't receive any compensation for it. That wasn't really what she was after, however.