Biography Paintings
Peter Robert Keil is an internationally-acclaimed artist, recognized worldwide for his unique method of putting on canvas not only harmonious forms, but discordant colors that in the hands of this modern master become pleasing to the beholder. His works are sold at leading auction houses around the world, and his paintings hang in many museums and private collections
Peter was born in Zullichau, Pomerania (now Poland) on August 6, 1942. At age 15, he began painting and creating art with the help of his first mentor, Otto Nagel. He admired the work of Picasso and other expressionists, fascinated by the bright colors that contrasted with the bleak environment where he grew up. Studying with Nagel, Peter learned about colors and was introduced to painting outdoors, directly from nature. However with the political structure in Germany and the addition of the Berlin Wall, he was forced to abandon his intense studying with his influential instructor.
In the late 1950's, Peter met Joan Miro and began to study with him as well as visit his home on the island of Mallorca. It was here that the freedom of rhythmic structuring, the verve and brightness of the vocabulary of forms led him away from his early didactic realistic preference for depicting life.
He apprenticed in Paris in a small studio close to the Palace de la Bastille. There he learned to keep his art free of nature's constraints, utilizing a dynamic and spontaneous brushwork technique that distanced him even further from classical realism. At night, he came into contact with diverse Parisian characters including alcoholics, drug addicts, and street walkers. These subjects served as models for his sketches. Even in this early stage of his career, Peter's work bore his unique individual trademark: a certain coarseness, dynamism and loud coloring which remains a record and testament of his contribution to the early phase of the West German neo-expressionist movement.
