Peter Keil “Mephisto” Oil Painting

Peter Keil

One of Germany's best contemporary painters, Peter Robert Keil’s dynamic shapes and impressive choice of colors are particularly popular with two generations of collectors. Once known as ‘the Wild Man of Berlin” for his unruly locks of hair and energetic art and lifestyle, Keil was one of the now infamous Neo-Expressionist “Grossen Wilden” (Young Fauves) sharing the limelight with his friends and storied artists Elvira Bach, Rainer Fetting, and George BaseIitz. Later, the young Keil developed friendships with fellow artists Joan Miro, Andy Warhol, and while living and traveling in Spain he would occasionally exchange comments on art with Picasso and Salvador Dali. The highly collectable work of Peter Robert Keil can be found at art exhibitions, museums and galleries, private collections of the rich and famous, in offices and hotels, as well as some of the leading auction houses in Europe. A most prolific international artist, Keil now offers special direct-from-artist pricing to American galleries and collectors interested in pieces from his private collection of work, past and present.

Keil’s energetic artworks are primarily oil-based paint on canvas, board, cardboard, ceramic and any other medium that will transport his vibrant primary colors and keen social commentary. Admittedly, Kiel’s inspiration is based on his view of man as an essentially social being. Not restricted by convention or bound by narrow-minded moralistic self-righteousness, the impassioned painter is free to portray the reality of our often not-too-subtle interactions with other people in bars, on the streets, in flea markets, at work and at play in public places in both Europe and America. While his gritty work does not serve to illustrate any illusions of candy-colored reality or empty vain beauty, Keil primarily centers his compositions on the human forms -faces, heads, figures and torso cutting to the heart of human emotion. With a keen eye to the super-reality behind the facade, Keil is fascinated by the stories of people on the fringes of society, those who have been pushed too far — the down and out, thieves, drug addicts, pimps artists and whores--those characters who chose an existence on the other side of society.