BIOGRAPHY
CHARLES KELLER was a painter, printmaker, cartoonist and political activist.
Scenes of labor and portraits of the disenfranchised are prominent in his work. A native of Long Island, NY, he graduated from Cornell University in 1936 and studied printmaking at the Art Students League with Harry Sternberg and Will Barnet in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. From 1938 to 1941 Keller worked on a series of lithographs featuring the construction of the New York Sixth Avenue Subway. He assisted the artist Harry Sternberg on murals for the Lakeview Post Office in Chicago from 1939-42, and for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The World's Fair mural was sponsored by the Roebling Cable Corporation and featured California's Golden Gate Bridge.
In 1940-41, Keller had a studio at One Union Square on the same floor as Reginald Marsh. In 1945, he moved to a studio at 30 East 14th Street, shared with Harry Sternberg until 1953. There, Keller was part of a thriving artists' community that included Isabel Bishop, Minna Citron, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Raphael Soyer. It was at this time that he became friends with the painters Rockwell Kent and Charles White.
Through the 1940s, Keller was an organizer for the Young American Artists Association and the Victory Workshop. During World War II, Keller was a civilian artist for the Navy. In 1943, he researched and designed the Airways to Peace exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was Art Editor of the New Masses from 1945-48, and for the March of Labor from 1949-51.
Keller next moved to upstate New York where he lived from 1951-1961, first in Croton-on-Hudson and then on a cooperative farm near Newburgh. While there, with Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson he helped organize the farm workers. The Newburgh Historical Society holds a collection of Keller's work from this time. He taught art history and studio art at Vassar College in 1952, and at Duchess Community College in 1956, both in Poughkeepsie, NY.
From 1961-70, Keller lived with his family in Rome, Italy, maintaining a studio there until 1971. During his time in Rome, he exhibited in Europe, primarily in Italy and England. The Crisp Museum of the University of Southeast Missouri at Cape Girardeau holds a major collection of Keller's work from this period. In 1971, he relocated to New York City permanently. Back from Italy, he taught art at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY in 1971 and at Parsons School of Design, NY in 1992.
In New York, he was a staff artist and editorial cartoonist for the People's Daily World from 1978 to 1988. Keller's cartoons have been included in Comic Power at Exit Art in NY, Cartoons/Comics, Personalities at Wesleyan University in Ohio and Salon International de la Caricature in Montreal, Canada, as well as Satire: A Weapon for Peace, a traveling exhibition in the USSR. He is featured in Andrew Hemingway's book, Artists on the Left, published by Yale University Press in 2002. The Tamiment Library of New York University holds an extensive collection of Keller's political cartoons.
Mural by Henry Sternberg, assisted by Charles Keller
His work was also included in group exhibitions including the American Federation of the Arts traveling show in 1943, 25th Regional Exhibition, Albany Institute of History and Art, NY in 1959, Knickerbocker Artists, National Arts Club, NY in 1960, American Artists in Italy, America Embassy, Rome in 1973, Amerika, Trauma und Depression 1920-40, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Germany in 1980, The Artists of Union Square, Associated American Artists and American Screen Prints, National Academy of Design, NY in 1987, American Society of Contemporary Artists exhibitions, NY in 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2004, America at Work, 1920-40, Lubin House, Syracuse University Art Collection, Syracuse, NY, L'Amerique de la Depression, Musee-Galerie de la Seita, Paris, France in 1996, Order/Disorder, New York Public Library, NY, 1999, American Scene and the WPA Era Printmakers, Syracuse University, NY in 2000, 100 Years of Prints, Art Students League, NY in 2002, Rosenberg Show, Puffin Room, NY in 2003 and The American Scene, the British Museum in London, England in 2008.
Keller is represented by Susan Teller Gallery in NY, where he was included in the inaugural exhibition, Celebrating New York City in 1988, Mining Scenes of the 1930s and 40s, (Charles Keller, Riva Helfond and Harry Sternberg) in 1989, The Artists of 30 East 14th Street in 1992, Industrial Realism in 1997 and A New York Triangle in 1999. His one-man show, Charles Keller, The Sixth Avenue Subway Construction, 1937-1941 took place in 1993. In 2004, Charles Keller, A Ninetieth Birthday Celebration, Paintings, Prints, and Unique Works on Paper, 1939-1960, took place at the Gallery to celebrate his long career.
Keller is in the public collections of the New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Art Students League in NY, Syracuse University Art Museum, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Library of Congress, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, the Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, the Wolfsonian Museum, Florida International University, Miami Beach, the House of Friendship, Moscow, Russia, the Anticoli Corrado Museum of Art, Italy, the British Museum, London, England, the Tamiment Library of New York University, the Crisp Museum of the University of Southeast Missouri at Cape Girardeau and the Newburgh Historical Society, Newburgh, NY.