Keanish On Kate

My aunt Bonnie and Jim Bigalow were friends of the artist Walter Keane and his wife, Margaret, who kept it a secret she rendered the big eyed race. They had them over for dinner. Now there is a movie coming out titled ‘Big Eyes’ starring Reese Witherspoon, who is kin to Kate Windsor, and Christine Rosamond Benton. I think Margaret Keane should do a portrait of Kate the Duchess of Cambridge.

I believe I found the photo used for Kate’s terrible portrait, it used to announce she is expecting, which may account for the knowing smile and big eyes looking off in the distance at what will be……a big eyed royal waif?

I am now looking for someone to produce the movie of Rosamoon, about the old Iranian (Bijan) who was hired to render Christine Rosamond knock-offs, he posing as a woman named Sara Moon. Here is the real Ed Woods. I was accused of being the real Sara Moon.

Jon Presco

Copyright 2013

Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski first pitched the biopic Big Eyes to their Ed Wood director Tim Burton in August 2010. We haven’t heard much about the project since then, but there was a big development today. Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds are now attached to play Margaret and Walter Keane in the indie drama. Walter became famous for paintings featuring saucer-eyed kids, though it was the shy Margaret who really did the work. Margaret eventually tired of the misplaced credit, which led to a divorce and a heated court battle to prove authorship of the paintings.

The creator of the works that launched the name Sara Moon upon the world during 1976 is a Persian artist by the name of Bijan who lives in Germany. He had been commissioned by Red Baron Publishing of Los Angeles to create commercial artworks of the female form.
Four years later Bijan parted company with Red Baron and nothing by his hand was released again until Verkerke began to publish his art in 1981. For their part, Red Baron continued to satisfy demand for new Sara Moon work by commissioning the artist Christian to paint and sign images as ‘Sara Moon’. You can see Christian’s work here.

With Bijan at Verkerke, this led to works by both artists being released as ‘Sara Moon’ art during the years 1980-82 after which Bijan won the sole right to the name.

With regard to signatures, Bijan’s ‘ Sara Moon’ signature with Red Baron is shown above left. The Sara Moon paintings created by Christian during 1980-82 is shown above center, and Bijan’s more ‘stylised’ Verkerke signature is shown above right.
Bijan still owns most of his original works, but it is feared that many of the early pieces were lost when Red Baron Publishing was consumed by fire (c.1983?) at which time the company ceased trading.*

In Germany, Bijan continued to paint as Sara Moon for Verkerke until the early 1990′s when he retired to a quieter life to teach – out of the spotlight.

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/sams-anchor-cafe/

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/sara-moon-rosamon/

https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/saving-dottie-witherspoon/
Alexander and Karaszewski will direct Big Eyes, their fourth biopic script following Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flint, and Man on the Moon. Burton is producing. The trio is also working on a new version of The Addams Family. Filming is scheduled for this spring. Hit the jump for more on the story of the Keanes.

Background pulled from the initial report:

“Walter Keane became a national celebrity and talk show fixture in the 1950s after he pioneered the mass production of prints of big-eyed kids, and used his marketing savvy to sell them cheaply in hardware stores and gas stations across the country. Unfortunately, he claimed to be the artist. That role was played by Margaret, his shy wife. She generated the paintings from their basement and Walter’s contribution was adding his signature to the bottom. The ruse broke up their marriage, and when she tried to make it known that she authored the paintings, they ended up in a court battle after Walter called her crazy. The case culminated in a dramatic courtroom showdown. The judge put up two easels, side by side, and challenged each of them to start painting. He begged off, blaming a shoulder injury, while she dashed off her familiar big-eyed creation.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the flapdoodle, a splendacious art-historian named Christopher Lloyd gushed in an official video about the greatness and mystery of the portrait, comparing it to Leonardo fucking da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer! This 24-karat fruitcake yammered about the picture’s “psychological import,” its “ethereal effect,” and its “slow, methodical method.” Leave it to the British to go whole hog in both directions at once — and for everyone to somehow still get it wrong.

Christopher Ofili, known as Chris Ofili (born 10 October 1968), is a Turner Prize-winning Nigerian / British painter who is best known for artworks that incorporate elephant dung. He was one of the Young British Artists. Since 2005, Ofili has been living and working in Trinidad, where he currently resides in Port of Spain.

Sarah Lucas (born Holloway, London, 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour, and include photography, collage and found objects.

Margaret D. H. Keane was born 1927 in Tennessee, and attributes her deep respect for the Bible and inspirations of her artwork to the relationship with her grandmother. She later became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which she said changed her life for the better.[1]
In the 1960s, Margaret Keane’s artwork was sold under the name of her husband, Walter Keane. He locked her in a room and forced her to paint,while taking credit for her work. Conflict over that issue was cited as one of the reasons they divorced. Neither wanting to relinquish rights to the artwork, Walter and Margaret’s divorce proceedings went all the way to federal court. At the hearing, Margaret created a painting in front of the judge to prove that she was the artist. Walter declined to paint before the court, citing a sore shoulder. In 1986, the courts sided with her, enabling her to paint under her own name.
Her works while living in her husband’s shadow tended to depict sad children in a dark setting, but after divorcing, moving to Hawaii, and becoming one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, her paintings took on a happier, brighter style. Her website now advertises her work as having “tears of joy” or “tears of happiness”.
Keane is a fixture in popular culture. Some of her well-known fans over the years have included actresses Joan Crawford and Natalie Wood, whom she painted portraits of; filmmaker Tim Burton, who commissioned Keane to paint Lisa Marie; and animator Craig McCracken, whose characters the Powerpuff Girls are based on Keane’s ‘waifs’; additionally the Girls’ schoolteacher is named “Ms. Keane”.
Currently Margaret makes her home in Napa County, California. She will be portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in the upcoming film Big Eyes.