Overcoming Obstacles In Margaret Keane's Big Success

Margaret Keane’s BIG Success

“For many years, I had allowed my second husband to take credit for my paintings. But one day, unable to continue the deception any longer, I left him and my home in California and moved to Hawaii.” This is a quote from, Margaret Keane, one of the most successful painters in the 1960s. In order for Keane to rise to the level of fame she has, she had to go through many struggles like; raising her daughter on her own, escaping two bad marriages, being locked in her own home, and not being able to take credit for the thing that she loved doing more than anything else. She is an incredibly strong individual who has had to face too many obstacles on her quest to paint and be happy. Margaret Keane was originally married to Frank Ulbrich, who she had her daughter, Jane Ulbrich with, the inspiration for many of her paintings. She was unhappy in that marriage so she left him, which was uncommon during that time period, and made women more likely to be stuck in unhealthy situations, like Keane. She took her daughter and moved from Tennessee to California where she

He did not even have to see the painting in real life for him to shut it down and demand that it not be on display. It was also said that “Walter's” work was “the very definition of tasteless hack work.” Walter thought that the painting should have been something that would one day be praised like the Sistine Chapel, and seemed to revel in the critical potshots. After hearing all this slander thrown at her beloved piece Margaret was very hurt, but she overcame that hurt because she knew that there are many people who love her art. Many people, like Andy Warhol, were influenced by her artwork he said “I think what Keane has done is terrific! If it were bad so many people wouldn’t like