Paul Keene in the 195os:
Paris, Port-Au-Prince & Philadelphia
Seated Figure 1947 woodcut on mulberry paper, ed 2o image 1o 1/4 x 8 3/4”, sheet 17 x 12"
Seated Woman c. 195o ink & gouache on paper image/sheet 8 1/2 x 5 1/4”
Untitled (Head) c. 1947 charcoal on wove paper image/sheet 8 3/8 x 5 1/4”
We are pleased to share this distinguished body of work from a pivotal chapter in the career of Paul Keene. Selections here trace his artistic evolution through formative years spent in Paris (1949–1951), Haiti (1951–1954), and subsequent developments in his practice after his return to Philadelphia. Paul was a Philadelphia native and World War II veteran who served as a navigator with the Tuskegee Airmen. In the early 1940s, he studied at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (later University of the Arts); and, after WWII, at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art with support from the G.I. Bill. He had already begun exhibiting locally and engaging with Philadelphia’s vibrant Black cultural scene—most notably the Pyramid Club— where his early works reflected Social Realism, jazz culture, and the energy of North Philadelphia street life. In 1949, after being denied a university teaching position due to racial discrimination, Keene and his bride, Laura Mitchell Keene, relocated to Paris, where Paul enrolled at the Académie Julian. Immersed in the postwar art world of Paris, he studied African sculpture at the Musée de l’Homme, visited the studios of Picasso and Léger, and exhibited in the major Paris Salons. He was a co-founder of Galerie Huit, a pioneering collective of American artists abroad. As with many African American artists, Paris offered an atmosphere of creative freedom and racial respite, opening new paths for artistic inquiry. A John Hay Whitney Fellowship brought Keene to Haiti in 1952, where he sought and found a deep resonance between West African traditions and Haitian cultural expression. While in Haiti, his work became more symbolically charged and formally experimental, drawing on Haitian music, religion, and landscape. Moving fluidly between figuration and abstraction, Keene explored rhythm, narrative, and spirituality, forging a visual language rooted in the African diasporic experience.
Our publication coincides with Keene's inclusion in a new exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, “Paris Noir offers a vibrant immersion in a cosmopolitan Paris, a place of resistance and creation that gave rise to a wide variety of practices, from a new awareness of identity to the search for trans-cultural artistic languages. From international to Afro-Atlantic abstractions via Surrealism and free figuration, this historical voyage reveals the importance of artists of African descent in the redefinition of Modernisms and Post-modernisms.” The Pompidou Centre’s thesis perfectly suits Keene’s experience among global networks of artists who found in postwar Paris a place of radical possibility.-modernisms.” The Pompidou Centre’s thesis perfectly suits Keene’s experience among global networks of artists who found in postwar Paris a place of radical possibility.
Ron Rumford & Jon Eckel Dolan/Maxwell
Head c. 195o ink on paper image/sheet: 11 x 8 1/8"
Study for Horse 195o graphite on paper image/sheet: 1o 3/4 x 7 3/4”
In Paris, Keene forged connections with fellow expatriate artists, including Romare Bearden, Haywood Rivers, and Sam Francis. He contributed to the founding of Galerie Huit—an artist-run space spearheaded by fellow Tyler School alum Robert Rosenwald—and exhibited in prominent Paris Salons such as the Salon d’Hiver, Salon de Mai, and Salon des Jeunes Painters in 1951. He also visited the studios of Picasso and Fernand Léger and spent hours at the Musée de l’Homme studying African art, deepening his formal vocabulary and historical awareness.
Nude (Paris) c. 1949 ink on paper image/sheet 25 1/2 x 19 5/8”
Nude with Headband 195o ink on paper image/sheet 21 1/4 x 16 1/4”
Nude with Headband 1949 ink on paper image/sheet 21 x 16”
Nude (Arm Over Head) 1949 ink on paper image/sheet 15 3/4 x 21 1/4”
Three Nudes from Behind 195o graphite on paper image/sheet 6 1/2 x 9”
Soisy, France 1951 oil on board 22 1/4 x 27”
Paul Keene painted the neighborhood of Soisy Sur Montmorency, where he and Laura lived during their 2nd year in France. Housing was scarce after WWII and they were happy to find a place in Soisy, located about 7 miles north of Paris.
Photo at left is Paul Keene returned to the corner he painted near 11 rue du Puits Grenet in 2oo1.
Pieta, Soisy 1951 oil on canvas 2o
“The influence of cubism is apparent in paintings such as Pieta, Soisy, 1951. This painting reflects Keene’s ongoing interest in depicting Christian religious imagery, particularly in relation to African American experience. He acknowledged the historically important role of religion in the black community, and thus he would often depict the religious figures in his paintings as African American men and women.”
Klare Scarborough
Paul Keene in Paris with his painting Crucifixion 1950 now part of the permanent collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Other works from this period can be found in collections at Villanova University & Woodmere Art Museum in Pennsylvania.
Untitled (Haiti) c. 1951 oil on panel 15 7/8 x 12”
Port-Au-Prince Haiti Centre D’Art
Le Centre d’Art was among the oldest surviving cultural organizations in the Caribbean and served as a gallery and museum, an art school, and a site for art events and a meeting place for Haitian artists. It was established in 1944 by the American watercolorist DeWitt Peters, who served as its first director, and a group of Haitian intellectuals and artists that included writer Philippe Thoby-Marcelin and the architect and artist Albert Mangonès. Le Centre d’Art was in 1947 recognized as an “institution of public utility” by the Haitian state. Tragically the building was destroyed during the 2o1o earthquake.
Centre D'Art Announcement (with Antonio Joseph) 1953 relief print on pellum image/sheet 6 3/4 x 9 1/2”
Houses at Port au Prince Haiti 1951 ink on paper image/sheet 8 3/4 x 11 7/8’
Houses, Port au Price 1952
watercolor
image/sheet 1o x 14 1/8”
59 x 37 1/2"
Abstraction (orange) 1956 acrylic on paper image/sheet 21 7/8 x 28 3/8”
The Terrible Presence #1 c. 1957 acrylic on paper image/sheet 4o x 26”
Blues Singer 1956
gouache & ink on paper
image/sheet 18 x 24”
Jacob and the Angel 1958 graphite on paper image/sheet 13 7/8 x 1o 7/8”
Horseman/Angel 1958 ink & gouache on paper image/sheet 23 5/8 x 18 5/8”
Abstraction Grey-Black
Abstraction Red-Orange
Abstraction Yellow-Red
Abstraction Black-Grey c. 1959
watercolor & gouache
image/sheet 16 1/2 x 12 1/4”, & 10 x 8”
Blues for a Way Out/Poltergiest 1959 ink, oil pastel & graphite image/sheet 16 3/4 x 13 1/4"
Fiesta (aka The Bull Ring) 1958 watercolor & gouache on paper image/sheet 3o x 22”
Abstraction 1959 graphite & crayon on paper image/sheet 24 x 19”
Untitled Abstraction 1959
graphite & crayons on paper
image/sheet 24 x 19”
Untitled Abstraction 1959 graphite & crayons on paper image/sheet 24 x 19”
Untitled Abstraction 1959 graphite, pencil & crayons on paper image/sheet 24 x 19”
Abstraction 1959 graphite & crayon on paper image/sheet 24 x 19”
gouache on paper image/sheet 5o x 38”
Invocations 1959
acrylic & gouache on paper image/sheet 36 x 48”
Paul Keene with colleagues Centre d’Arte, Port au Prince
Paul Keene born 192o, Philadelphia; died 2009, Warrington, PA collections
The African American Museum in Philadelphia, Allentown Art Museum, Bowdoin College, The British Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Delaware Museum of Art, David C Driskell Center, University of Maryland, Free Library of Philadelphia, Hampton University Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, LaSalle University Art Museum, Howard University Gallery, Michener Art Museum, John E Lewis Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Nigerian National Museum, Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Johnson C. Smith University, Tucson Museum of Art, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, John Hay Whitney Collection, Villanova University, Woodmere Art Museum
recent exhibitions
2026 (as yet not titled), solo exhibition, African American Museum, Philadelphia
2025 Paris Noir Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
2016 Haitian Spirits: Paul Keene in Haiti 1951-1953 LaSalle University Art Museum, Philadelphia; traveled to North Carolina Central University Art Museum and Leland Galleries, Georgia College State University
2015 Five Decades: Black Artists in Philadelphia, 1925-1976 Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia
2011 African American Art from the Permanent Collection Palmer Museum of Art, University Park PA
2008 In Search of Missing Masters, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia
2007 Impressions of the Shore Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, NJ
2005 Paul Keene: His Art and Legacy The Michener Art, Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
2001 Fleisher in the 1930’s Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia
2000 An Exuberant Bounty: Prints and Drawings by African American Artists Philadelphia Museum of Art From West to Wyeth, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia
1991 Icons, Myths & Legends, traveling solo exhibition: African American Museum, Philadelphia, and The Michener Art, Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
