Big Eyes is director Tim
Burton's newest on the life of artist Margaret Keane.
The maker of Beetlejuice,
The Nightmare before Christmas, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Alice in
Wonderland and Corpse Bride is a fervent collector of Margaret Keane's artworks
of big eyed children, women and animals. The sad children are a result of
Margaret's miserable childhood days, when she started painting.
In 1955 Margaret met
Walter Keane at an exhibition in San Francisco. At that time Walter painted
Parisian street scenes. They soon got married. When the duo held a show at a
local jazz club, Walter claimed he had painted Margaret's popular Big Eyes and
made up a story that they referred to the orphans he had seen after World War
II.
Her deranged,
controlling, violent husband earned a fortune with the oeuvre whilst Margaret
was cooped up in the house, keeping her mouth shut and taking care of the
children.
After their divorce in
1965 the fraudulence was finally revealed. In 1970 Margaret told her story to a
journalist. In 1986 Margaret took the case to court, where they both had to
paint.
Walter died in 2000.
Margaret Keane, aged eighty seven, now depicts happy, bright coloured subjects.
In the making are Tim
Burton's Peregrine's Home for Peculiars and the follow up of Beetlejuice.
