Laguna Museum Talks to Focus on Keane’s Art

Two speakers will discuss how the big-eyed waifs of artist Margaret Keane are windows to her soul during a lecture Thursday at the Laguna Art Museum.

Doug Harvey and Judith E. Vida, essayists who wrote the “Margaret Keane and Keaneabilia” exhibit catalog, will begin the talk at 7:30 p.m., providing in-depth discussions of her paintings. They will discuss how her portraits of subjects with large, dilated pupils, fixed stares and tearful glances affected the art world and popular culture and how, in these works, psychological pain was turned into kitsch.

The lectures are held in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition of Keane’s work, which continues through Sunday. It is the first major museum retrospective of the artist and covers the period from 1955 to 2000.

Admission is $3 for members and $8 for nonmembers. The Laguna Art Museum is at 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach. For more information, call (949) 494-8971.