African American painter and educator Paul F. Keene Jr. was born August 24, 1920, in Philadelphia. He was known for painting Black urban life, including portraits of jazz musicians.[1] Keene studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (now University of the Arts) and Temple University’s Tyler School of Art. He was a Tuskegee Airman and used his funding from the GI Bill to attend the Académie Julian in Paris.[2] From 1949 to 1951 he lived in Paris, where he was a founding member, with Philadelphia-born painter Raymond Hedler, of the Galerie Huit collective gallery for American artists. After leaving France, he studied, exhibited, and taught in Haiti from 1952 to 1954. Keene established the art department at Bucks County Community College and taught there from 1968 to 1985.[3] He also taught at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) and Tyler School of Art.
Keene died November 26, 2009, in Warrington, Pennsylvania.[4]
PMA Collection
PMA Library
PMA Archive
Notes
[1] Bucks County Artists Database n.d.
[2] Archives of American Art n.d.
[3] Bucks County Artists Database n.d.; Woodmere Art Museum n.d.
[4] Bucks County Artists Database n.d.
References
Archives of American Art. N.d. “Paul F. Keene Papers, circa 1940–1987.” Smithsonian Institution. Accessed November 23, 2021. https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/paul-f-keene-papers-10164.
Bucks County Artists Database. N.d. “Paul F. Keene, Jr.” Accessed November 23, 2021. https://bucksco.michenerartmuseum.org/artists/paul-f-keene.
Woodmere Art Museum. N.d. “Paul F. Keene Jr.” Accessed November 23, 2021. https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/artist/paul-f-keene-jr.
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