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Charles Keller
(b. 1914, d. 2006) was a New York-born artist trained at Cornell and
the Art Students League in the depression years of the 1930s through
1941. The employment hardships and labor activism of those years
inspired an increase in membership to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA);
Keller himself joined in 1940, remaining a committed member all his
life. His politics influenced his life’s work as a political
draughtsman, cartoonist, printmaker, painter, and editor for several
significant socialist publications. Keller’s political activism made him
a target during the McCarthy era and his passport was revoked by the
State Department until 1961 after which the family decamped from
Newburgh to Rome, where they remained for the next twelve years. Back in
America in 1973, Keller taught at Vassar, Hofstra, and Parsons, while
remaining very active in CPUSA and the People’s Daily World. His works
are included in the collections of the Library of Congress, the British
Museum, and the New York Public Library, among many others.
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