Paul F. Keene Jr.

The artist
Private collection, New York, circa 1980s (acquired from the above)
By descent to the present owner, 2015

Born in Philadelphia, Paul Keene studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art and spent the formative years of his career in Paris (1949-51) and Haiti (1952-54), where he absorbed the lessons of European modernism and adopted the vibrant colors of the Haitian environment. A self-described “abstract realist,” his works reflect both the accomplishments and the challenges of Black artists in the twentieth century. Keene drew significant inspiration from the world around him and the present work depicts the lively streets of his hometown. As Lewis Taylor Moore observes, “Keene’s imagery is not just rendered as commentary but observed, reconstructed and reformulated into worlds that reflect and expand our understanding of the human spirit” (Paul Keene: An Appreciation, Philadelphia, 1998, p. 22).