Background
Keene was born in Philadelphia and died in Warrington, Pennsylvania.
Keene was born in Philadelphia and died in Warrington, Pennsylvania.
He earned three degrees (Bachelor of Fine Arts, BScEd, and Master of Fine Arts) and taught at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and the Philadelphia College of Artist
He earned a reputation at a time when that was exceedingly difficult for artists of his race. During World World War II, Keene enlisted in the Air Force. He used the GI Bill to study at the Academie Julian in Paris.
While there, he helped found Gallerie 8, a collective gallery for American artists working in Paris.
Keene exhibited with Picasso and Leger at the Salon de Mai and through Whitney Fellowships directed courses at the Centre Doctorate"Art, Portuguese-au-Prince, Haiti between 1952 and 1954. When Keene returned to the United States he began work as an associate professor at the Philadelphia College of Artist
He later left for a professorship at Buckinghamshire County Community College (BCCC) in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where he helped to establish a new art department. Keene retired from teaching in 1985.
His works are in collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Hampton University Museum in Virginia, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the James A. Michener Art Museum, the British Museum in London, the James E. Lewis Museum of Art at Morgan State University in Baltimore, the Nigerian National Museum, the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, the Dallas Museum of Art, Tucson Museum of Art, and the Woodmere Art Museum, among others.
He was a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.