Untitled

Anna Keeney

Anna Keeney lived to be just forty-seven years old, passing away little more than six months after the end of World War II. Her brief career therefore spanned the most tumultuous moments of the first half of the 20th century, and her art - what little there is available to see - reflected an experimental, energetic, and introspective spirit.

Keeney’s style is indicative of the rising Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States and its role in changing the landscape of wartime and post-war self expression. By the 1940s, direct representation was no longer the only valid form of visual communication. In this untitled abstract lithograph, figures stand before what appears to be a shattered structure with tall windows, not unlike a church or synagogue.

The figure in the foreground holds a Star of David, while the figure to the left also clutches an object, perhaps a Torah scroll or a tome. The overall feeling of the work is somber and her choice of texturization, in which small white spots, like points of light, are scattered throughout like snow or street lamps, lends the piece an ethereal quality.