F H card letter b

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Your World Belongs to Us Now, Human.


Creepy big-eyed art from Margaret Keane. To the left, "Love Makes A World of Difference," which while a commendable sentiment, could as easily be entitled "Return to the Village of The Damned."

Note the big-eyed beagle center right, who looks like he just swallowed a bagel.

In the notes to the painting, the writer remarks, "...this painting should put the final nail in the coffin as to who really did the famous 'Big-Eyed Children' some 40+ years ago..."

Keane was discovered in the 1970s by Curator Tyler Stallings of the Laguna Art Museum, who first saw her work when K-mart sold cheap reproductions. Keane was married to Walter Keane, originally known as the artist of the "Big-Eyes." Margaret eventually sued Walter for taking credit for her work, and won the case after proving to the jury that she was indeed the artist by actually painting an oil painting right there in court. Her husband refused to do a painting, stating that he had a “sore shoulder.” There was also a scheduled Union Square "paint-off" in 1970, covered in Life magazine, where Margaret again produced a painting but Walter failed to attend.

Not surprisingly, Margaret divorced Walter and later moved to Hawaii, where, as far as I can determine, she is creating large-eyed progeny to this very day, a la "Island of Dr. Moreau."

via Drawn Posted by Hello

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