Posted 13 years ago
eyesopen
(70 items)
These two lovely paintings I rescued from an old folks home. we were moving some people in and I saw the pile of stuff ready to be chucked out and these caught my eye, (how anyone could have the heart to throw these away is beyond me?)
They now hang beautifuly in my baby's play room.
I dont know anything about them besides they are possibly from the 60's or 70's?
These are likely Keane Big eye paintings or facsimile of her work . Wonderful I love these !
The world famous "Big Eye" paintings had their beginning in San Francisco over 50 years ago, by the artist Margaret Keane
http://www.keane-eyes.com/
mani is right on eyeson in fact i got two of them also. yes they are great to put in a kids room
They are similar to Margaret Keane's paintings but I think they are just in the style of...Keane's work was very realistic (well, except for those giant eyes!) and these are more simplified. Definitely from the 60s or 70s, I'd say, and adorable!
Walter Stanley Keane and Margaret Keane produced a large number of kitsch copies of prison artists. The big eyed girls origin was Vacaville Medical Facility and Walter and Margaret copied the style and works executed to pander to popular demand alone and purely for commercial purposes rather than works created as self-expression by an artist. Started with Eloise Smith's vision in the early 1950's based simply on the value of providing all prison inmates with the most meaningful art experience possible; small art shows were in the visiting rooms by 1956. The Prison Arts Project (PAP), created through the vision and efforts of Eloise Smith and her ongoing art shows from the 1950's. The success of this initial program led to the formation of Arts-in-Corrections. The sad face children are early examples of the kitsch art and the happy children are after the artist claimed to find god. The Keane's were kitsch artists without any creative talents and photographed and copied other artist for mass production.
Thanks for all the info every one.
I guess this puzzles is solved for sure.
Papa were did you get all this infomation? Iv been looking on the internet for days on end and havent been able to find out too much at all.
Cheers,
Kane.
you will have to check mine out on my page eyes
your colors really shine out on yours
Well, if you visit the site that Manikin provided above, you will see that Margaret Keane did indeed have an abundance of talent. The art may be kitsch, but it was very creative and beautifully painted. Her husband was not the artist at all, perhaps he's the one without any talent! I'd love a link to where you got your information about the Keanes copying other artists. I certainly don't claim to be an authority on her work, I don't know the source of all of her ideas, but I know talent when I see it.
Three generations of CDC employees and grew up in the bay area. Walter and Margaret were wealthy San Francisco business people who mass produced kitsch art and just like the wealthy George Lefton and the Lefton Company they mass produced "small peoples" artwork. During Margaret's and Walters divorce both were unable to actually paint the "big eyed girls" but at least Margaret tried and came close enough to get awarded the copyrights. The real artist was locked up in Vacaville Medical Facility and did not sign his paintings until after Walters and Margarets divorce. He then signed MAIO or Margaret am I old? Just like the Lefton Company! In the 1960s the Lefton Company copied many of Florence Ward's designs and used overseas labor to reproduce them. These cheaper imitations were the downfall of the Florence Ceramic Company. Florence Ceramics was created in 1939 when a widowed woman named Florence Ward set up a kiln and decided to take up modeling clay figures partly as therapy for the death of her youngest son. She displayed her early works in her garage and again the wealthy mass produced the "small peoples" art. They are called kitsch artwork stollen from the poor.
I'm sorry, Papa, but I've been unable to verify anything you wrote after a day of searching the internet. There is no indication anywhere that these paintings were done by anyone other than Margaret Keane. She DID paint before a judge, and also in another "paint-off", neither time did her ex-husband Walter participate. I did find an article that mentioned many of the artists who copied Margaret Keane's style, including an artist named Maio. There were many of these copy-cats, and they came from all over the world. If Margaret were indeed a fraud, then she would not be painting such amazing paintings as she is today. Still the same style, only much more beautiful and refined. There is no information that Margaret was ever anything but an artist, but it is obvious that Walter Keane WAS a businessman, who mislead many that HE was the artist of the big eyed children.
I had these pictures when I was a child. They are printed on a type of interfacing fabric as an outline and then you paint them. Hobbytex was the company that did them and it was all the rage at the time. You would get these tubes of paint with a ball point type nib on them in all sorts of colours. They were like type of enamel paint I believe. If I remember correctly Hobbytex was a party plan set up. Google it if you're interested.