Keene Jr., Paul F.

Keene studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (Philadelphia College of Art and now University of the Arts), Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, and the Académie Julian in Paris. During formative periods of his career spent in Paris (1949–51) and Haiti (1952–54), he absorbed the lessons of European modernism and adopted the vibrant colors of the Haitian environment. While in Paris, he founded the cooperative Galerie Huit with Raymond Hendler, shared an apartment with Sanford Greenberg, and studied with French modernist painter Fernand Léger. He taught at the Philadelphia College of Art from 1954 to 1968. Keene also taught and established a new art department at Bucks County Community College. His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the James A. Michener Museum.