Cletus Nelson

In the mid-1960's a married couple named Walter and Margaret Keane popularized paintings and posters of sad-looking children with distinctively large eyes. At the fad's peak, the duo made millions selling "big eye" oil paintings to celebrities such as Joan Crawford and Jerry Lewis and mass-produced prints to everyone else. They also inspired many imitators. Walter, a self-aggrandizing real estate developer with a genius for mass-marketing, claimed credit for creating for the kitschy show more portraits, which were in fact painted by his melancholic wife as reflections of her despair.

Eventually, the craze ran its course. Margaret broke free of Walter and established herself as an independent artist, while he descended into loneliness, alcoholism and paranoia in his old age.

Citizen Keane tells the story of the couple's rise and fall in the fickle world of pop art. The book reads like an expanded newspaper article, which in fact it is. It's not great literature, but if you are curious about the origins and enduring influence of "big eye" art, this book provides a decent overview. show less