PAUL F. KEENE, JR. (1920 - 2009) Late Summer Studio Window.
Oil on linen canvas, 1968. 1828x1333 mm; 72x52 1/2 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Signed and titled in oil, right stretcher bar, verso. From the artist's Window Series.
Provenance: the estate of the artist.
Exhibited: Dolan Maxwell Gallery, Philadelphia, at the National Black Fine Art Show, New York, 2009.
This large oil is an excellent example of Paul Keene's 1968 series of paintings of images seen through his studio window. Windows appear again in his later 1980s surreal Sky Window series of paintings, examples of which are in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Born in Philadelphia, Paul Keene studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (Philadelphia College of Art and now University of the Arts), Temple University's Tyler School of Art, and the Académie Julian in Paris. He studied art abroad in both Paris (1949–51) and Haiti (1952–54) synthesizing both modernism and art of the diaspora. Keene founded the artist cooperative Galerie Huit in Paris with Raymond Hendler, working alongside Al Held, Jules Olitski and Haywood "Bill" Rivers and other artist who came over on the G.I. Bill. He also studied in the studio of Fernand Léger with whom he exhibited at the Salon de Mai. He returned to Philadelphia here he taught at the Philadelphia College of Art and the Tyler School of Art. His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the James A. Michener Museum. Keene returned to Philadelphia where he taught at the Philadelphia College of Art from 1954 to 1968, and then established the art department at Bucks County Community College. His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Woodmere Museum of Art and the James A. Michener Museum.
Consigned to support the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia and its legacy endowment campaign.
