Peter Robert Keil - Untitled

Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the subject depicted, an attempt to capture their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. The processes of abstraction brought about by contemporary art have contributed to this type of investigation.

German artist Peter Robert Keil, as we can see from this work, remains faithful to his country's Expressionist tradition. Germany, home to one of the most important historical avant-gardes of the first half of the twentieth century, the Die Brucke movement, can be considered the mother of Expressionism. Keil draws on that history with his brutal synthesis of the subject constructed with a thick, angular black line. The figure appears almost crumpled in the work's restricted space. Even the application of color is tormented and existentialist. The paint is applied in broad layers of dense matter. The color far transcends phenomenal reality to take on a completely symbolic and spiritual value.

Peter Robert Keil was born in 1942 in Züllichau. From 1954 onwards, he studied under Otto Nagel and began his apprenticeship as a metalworker. Between 1959 and 1961, he studied at the Berlin University of the Arts. He also came into contact with other artists such as Georg Baselitz, Eugen Schönebeck, Markus Lüpertz, and Joachim Schmettau. From the early 1960s onwards, Keil established studios in Paris, London, Berlin, and the United States. He currently lives and works primarily in Zimmerau (Bavaria, Germany), Berlin, and Los Angeles.

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