Paul F. Keene Jr.

Paul Farwell Keene Jr. (24 August 1920 – 26 November 2009) was a Philadelphia-area artist and teacher whose work helped raise the visibility of Black American artists. As a self-described "abstract realist," his story reflects both the accomplishments and the difficulties of African American artists in the 20th century.

Personal life

Keene was born on August 24, 1920, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Paul F. Keene Sr and Josephine Bond Hebron, co-founder of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Incorporated. In 1944, he married Laura Mitchell, the great-great-granddaughter of abolitionist John Pierre Burr. They resided in Warrington, Pennsylvania with their son and daughter.

Keene earned three degrees (B.F.A., B.Sc.Ed., and M.F.A.), and was also a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He studied at the Academie Julian in Paris under the G.I. Bill. While in Paris, Keene was a founding member of Galerie Huit, a collective gallery for American artists. Keene exhibited with Picasso and Leger at the Salon de Mai and through Whitney Fellowships directed courses at the Centre D'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti between 1952 and 1954.

In 1952 Keene located to Haiti where he helped to establish a new art department.

In 1966 Keene painted a mural at the HBCU Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1971 Keene created a relief installation for the Fifty Ninth Street Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He had a two-decade-long association with the Brandywine Workshop and was the recipient of their Van Der Zee Award in 1990. the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Hampton University Museum in Virginia, the James A. Michener Art Museum., the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University in Baltimore, the Nigerian National Museum, the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Tucson Museum of Art, among others.

Keene's work was also included in the 2015 exhibition We Speak: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1920s-1970s at the Woodmere Art Museum.