Margaret Keane

Margaret D. H. Keane (born Peggy Doris Hawkins, September 15, 1927) is an American artist. Creator of the "big-eyed waifs", Keane is famous for drawing paintings with big eyes, and mainly paints women, children and animals in oil or mixed media. While the work achieved commercial success through inexpensive reproductions on prints, plates and cups, it has been critically dismissed as kitsch. One reviewer pointed to its ubiquity in discount stores: "They hung in Woolworth's, next to the velvet Elvi, or maybe it was Walgreen's, by the clowns." The work was originally attributed to Keane's husband, Walter Keane. After their divorce in the 1960s, Margaret soon claimed credit, which was established after an in-court "paint-off" in Hawaii. A resurgence of interest in Margaret Keane's work followed the release of Tim Burton's 2014 biopic Big Eyes. She maintains a gallery in San Francisco which boasts "the largest collection of Margaret Keane's art in the entire world." In light of the great gulf between her work's popularity and its critical lampooning, she has been called the "Wayne Newton of the art world."