Harold Keller received a BA in art and philosophy from the University of Arkansas in 1949, studied for his Master’s Degree at NYU in the 1950s, and from 1956 to 1962 taught art and philosophy at Fort Smith Junior College (now a campus of the University of Arkansas). A 1946 graduate of Brooklyn Technical High […continue on gallery page]
Chronology of Art
Click on each headline or image below to view the artwork from the time period.
New York City Years: the 1960s
Broadly brushed paintings of women riding the New York City subway grow from the collages of the early 1960s. Inspired by W.H. Auden’s poem “Musée des Beaux Arts”, in which daily life continues as major events occur, the Birth of Venus blossoms. She rises from her shell in Birth of Venus with the Yellow Submarine, […continue on gallery page]
Portals onto Other Worlds: the 1970s
Set in complex landscapes that have been described as “portals” onto another world, the paintings of the 1970s teem with military tanks camouflaged like Holstein cows, maps of parks and subway lines, floorplans of cathedrals and Greek temples with skies dominated by parallelograms of local showers where angels abound. Biblical subjects such as The Annunciation, […continue on gallery page]
Nemesis and her Aircraft: the 1980s
The mythological figures of Tyche and Nemesis appear often in the paintings of the late 1970s. In the 1980s, the goddess of fortune and the goddess of retribution, dominate the paintings, which are frequently circular in shape. Inspired by Albrecht Dürer’s 1502 engraving of the winged Nemesis, who travels on her celestial globe, holding a […continue on gallery page]
Saints, Angels and Witches: 1990-1997
From 1990 to 2015, the artist made drawings using pencil with ink washes, using mylar, a type of plastic once used by architects to create blue prints, as a support. Unlike paper, it takes multiple corrections well – the artist was charmed that ink washes could be removed with Windex. He made prints with some […continue on gallery page]
The Archangel Michael fights Satan: 1996-2006
The Archangel Michael’s battle with evil dominates the drawings of these years. The fight always takes place at the top of an electricity pole, though in later drawings they are on top of silos. The Archangel wields various weapons: a scythe, an axe, a sword or a pruning knife. Satan starts out as a rather […continue on gallery page]
The Iliad and the Angels of the Four Winds: 2007-2015
The Iliad drawings deal with Homer’s telling of the tragic death of Hector, here played out against a backdrop of upstate New York farm silos. Athena figures prominently, with her helmet set rakishly so as not to disturb her ponytail. The drawings featured here are part of a group of 32, and was the result […continue on gallery page]