Charles Keller
1914-2006
Painter, printmaker, draftsman, cartoonist

The career of Charles Keller was one of painter, printmaker and cartoonist driven by the passion of political activism. Keller worked primarily in New York and in Rome, Italy. He was a skilled draftsman, applying a continuous observational practice throughout his career. Known for figurative genre painting, Keller also experimented with modernist abstractions. While his style and imagery changed over the years, what remained consistent is the way he constructed his paintings. From his earliest sketches and cartoons to his last abstractions, the underlying structure in Keller’s works is at the core of his aesthetic sensibility. Like the workers he championed, Keller built his paintings to tell a lasting story, a story that is polemic, deeply humane, and relevant to this day.