Peter Keil

Peter Robert Keil (born August 1942) is a German painter. He is representative of the "Junge Wilde" style in Berlin.

Life

Keil was born in Züllichau in the Neumark (now in Poland). His father was killed on the Eastern Front during World War II. Mother and son set out to make their way through the chaos of battered Germany to West Berlin. There he grew up in the neighborhood of grey blocks of houses, the typical backyards and the trees of the park nearby. Young Keil was fascinated by the books he found in the art section of the local library. There he admired the works of the Expressionists and of Pablo Picasso. In the beginning, Keil studied and copied the style of the great master Picasso whom he met in Spain much later.

At the age of 15 in 1957 Keil met the painter Otto Nagel, who became his first teacher and mentor. Nagel introduced Keil to painting techniques, taught him realistic painting, and how to deal with colors. As a young man, Keil accompanied Nagel on his tours of Berlin's back streets. They often painted from nature and the young Keil learned to see his neighborhood with the eyes of an artist. Teaching him the painter's craft and introducing him to outdoor painting, Nagel also influenced his motifs as well as his color palette.

Keil refined his technique and broadened his knowledge when he studied at Berlin's "Akademie fur Bildende Künste" (Berlin Academy of Fine Arts). The academy brought about some important acquaintances and contacts. There he met Baselitz, [Rainer Fetting|Fetting, Lupertz, and Schonebeck and made friends with Salome Schmettau and other important artists. Keil also obtained a degree as "Kunstschlosser" (art smith); several metal sculptures by Keil exist.

There exist a small series of beautiful paintings of scenes from New York City by Keil from 1959. Both the style and the dating appears to be consistent and would indicate that Keil spent some time there, though no records of the (first?) New York trip can be found in the official biographies. It must be noted that some of the themes were reproduced (or copied) by Keil himself in later versions of those paintings (see [http://finarte.ch this site, under "Landscapes and views"] ).

In 1961 Keil attended Baselitz's and Schonebeck's public presentation of their "Pandemonium Manifesto" at the "Grossgroschen 35" gallery. Keil also became a regular at Herta Fiedler's, who became known as the "artists' mother". Keil was a well-known denizen of "Kleine Weltlaterne" in Moritzplatz, a meeting place for the emerging avant-garde "Junge Wilde" ("Young Fauves") artists, and he became the darling of art circles earning him the nickname the 'Wild man of Berlin" for his passion for art and living.

The construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 interrupted the relationship with his famous mentor when Nagel was trapped beyond the Wall in East Berlin.

Another important factor in those formative years of Keil's artistic development was his close friendship with the painter Joan Miró whom he had met in Majorca, Spain in the early 1960s. Mirò repeatedly invited him to his studio in Palma, high above the Gala Major bay. The intense sunlight as well as the vivid colors of the Mediterranean region were important sources of inspiration for both Mirò and Keil.

After Keil left Spain, he found a small studio in Paris near the Place de la Bastille. Living the carefree artist's life in Paris, the young Keil had a great time in the cafes, bars and restaurants of magnificent city and all it had to offer. By day he studied the Old Masterpieces in the museums, at night he painted portraits in bars to earn his living. Outcasts of the Parisian street scene and prostitutes were not only his models, but often thankful customers.

London was the young artist's next place of residence. There he rented a small flat in Earls Court. For a year he enjoyed 'Swinging London' before he found his way back to Berlin to paint on a full-time basis. Keil spent (and spends) most of his time between Germany and the United States, particularly Florida.

Works

There are very few known examples of Keil's paintings dated earlier than 1959. On the other hand, there is a large number of paintings dated 1959 - some are so different in style that it can be assumed that the date "59" in some of them does not actually correspond to the year of creation. In his German period, Keil is a contemporary witness of the consequences the erection the Berlin Wall had for West Berlin and the revolt against it. In one impressive painting he shows people protesting in front of the Brandenburg Gate and he later often painted the place of protest, Glienicker Brücke, as a symbol of separation of East and West Germany. Even in his later work, a considerable number of paintings reflect Berlin's ecstatic attitude towards life and politics. On a less political side, Keil often painted typical Berlin street and bar scenes (the well-known “Paris Bar” is a recurrent theme), celebrities he met (e.g., the famous German TV showman Harald Juhnke), women in various poses, fellow artists (e.g., Elvira Bach, Ranier Fetting, Markus Lüpertz). Another recurrent theme is lakes and sailboats, in particular his beloved Lake Wannsee near the Berlin of his youth, with its sailing boats, children swimming, sun-seeking bathers in rich colors and the hill scenery around it.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the neo-expressionist painters in Germany were grouped or marketed under the name of the “Neue Wilde”. Although many of the painters were actually acquainted or even were friends among themselves, the connections were loose, there was no programmatic manifesto, and the movement itself was largely promoted by the art galleries.

Particularly in his early years, Keil liked to paint on whatever support he could find. Several of his early works are just old paintings from flea markets that he simply painted over, or even prints with their "passepartout" – just painted over. He also collected old bedsheets and tablecloths at the flea market and spanned them over roughly built wooden frames to use them as “painting canvases”. Often the fabric used would be colored rather than white, and given the quick, hasty grounding, it would shine through and influence the painting’s overall tint. In some pictures he pasted newspaper clippings to create a sort of collage-paintings.

Although his early landscape paintings are very beautiful and reveal his talent, Keil’s attention is focused primarily on fellow humans. His life between Germany (Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfurt, and Bavaria), Spain (Majorca), France (Paris), and the United States (New York and Florida) led him to meet very different people and celebrities. Thus, he portraited ordinary people from the street (often from Berlin or from Miami), prostitutes, but also world-famous artists like Andy Warhol or fellow artists like Elvira Bach. He also loved to paint personalities from the media like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or Sofia Loren.

References

(modified from the [http://www.PeterKeil.com PeterKeil.com website] and the [http://www.razoogallery.com Razoogallery website] , probably written by T. Michael Kost, and integrated with information from several other sources)

External links

* [http://finarte.ch/Keil_frames.html finarte.ch] An extensive online collection of Keil paintings with an attempt at a systematic classification as well as several links to other websites and galleries showing Keil paintings
* [http://www.peter-robert-keil.de/ Willkommen auf der Webseite von Peter Keil] A German web site maintained by Peter Keil himself
* [http://peterkeil.com/index.htm PeterKeil.com] A similar website maintained by Keil and his entourage, in English
* [http://www.signandsight.com/features/773.html/ and then it went boom] , on the neo-expressionist "Neuen Wilden" artists
* [http://www.keilcollection.com/ keilcollection.com] An extensive online collection of Keil life works paintings for sale.