Born: 15 September 1927, United States
Died: 26 June 2022
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Margaret Doris Hawkins, Margaret Ulbrich, Margaret McGuire
Legal Battles: Margaret Keane transcript
American artist Margaret Keane was, or rather wasn’t, known for her paintings of children with surreally large eyes. Although the work was hugely commercially successful, mostly through inexpensive reproductions on various items, her then-husband Walter Keane claimed credit for her paintings. It was only after their divorce that Margaret went public with her story of their abusive marriage. She later proved herself in a courtroom “paint-off,” in which Walter refused to participate. Her story was dramatized in the 2014 biopic Big Eyes, which led to renewed interest in her work.
Due to eardrum damage when she was a toddler, Keane had significant hearing loss. She took up art as a child, attending the Traphagen School of Design for a year when she was 18. Early in her career, she began experimenting with kitsch. By the time she met Walter in the 1950s, she was married (as was he) with a child, but found him “suave, gregarious and charming” and the two married in 1955.
Signing her paintings “Keane,” Margaret did not initially realize that, when he sold her work, Walter was claiming he was the artist. When she found out, she stayed silent and even publicly supported his claim of authorship, later explaining that he had threatened to kill her if she said anything. Walter was a skilled salesman and self-promoter, and artist Andy Warhol told Life magazine in 1965, “I think what Keane has done is just terrific. It has to be good. If it were bad, so many people wouldn’t like it.”
It was the same year Margaret finally divorced Walter, having left him in 1964. It was not until 1970 – the same year that she remarried, to a man she credited with helping her become less timid and afraid – that she publicly announced, on a radio broadcast, that the paintings were hers. A reporter from the San Francisco Examiner arranged a “paint-off” in Union Square – Margaret showed up. Walter did not. Following a USA Today article claiming Walter was the artist, she sued both the newspaper and her ex-husband for defamation. This time, it was a judge ordering the paint-off. Walter refused, claiming a “sore shoulder” while Margaret completed her painting in less than an hour. The jury awarded her $4 million in damages. Margaret said afterward that “I really feel that justice has triumphed. It’s been worth it, even if I don’t see any of that four million dollars.” And in the end, she didn’t – a federal appeals court upheld the verdict but overturned the monetary damages.
Although many of her works from her time married to Walter showed sad-looking children in dark settings, her later work had a brighter, happier style. She was also commissioned to create portraits of various celebrities, including Joan Crawford, Natalie Wood, and Jerry Lewis.