Peter Robert Keil was born on 6 August 1942 in Züllichau, now Sulechów in Poland. His early years were marked by war and displacement. After childhood in Potsdam, he moved to Berlin-Wedding, where the grey streets and crowded courtyards became part of his visual world. Drawing and painting opened another possibility: a world he could fill with colour.
In Berlin, Otto Nagel became Keil’s first important teacher. Working alongside him, the young artist learned painting techniques and how to observe the people and places around him. Art books introduced him to expressionist painting and to Picasso. The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 disrupted his contact with Nagel.
Supported by his stepfather, whom he called his father, Peter Robert Keil spent formative periods on Mallorca. There, Joan Miró became his mentor. They worked together over a period of 16 years. Miró’s mentorship helped shape Keil’s artistic direction and his understanding of colour, line and form.
Through Miró, Keil discovered new possibilities for expressing what he felt and imagined. Forms could become freer, colours more instinctive, and a simple line could carry an entire emotion. These experiences encouraged him to trust his own vision and develop a personal way of painting.
His encounters with Pablo Picasso and the influence of Picasso’s work deepened this transformation. Faces and figures could be broken apart, rearranged and seen from unexpected perspectives. Keil increasingly moved beyond naturalistic representation, giving his subjects bold contours, expressive distortions and a new sense of freedom.
The Mediterranean became a turning point in his artistic life. The lessons of Miró and the influence of Picasso stayed with him as he developed the vivid faces, spontaneous gestures and unmistakable forms that define his own work.
Keil established studios and worked across several countries. City life, cafés, people and changing surroundings fed an expressive vocabulary of faces, figures and landscapes. An exhibition history stretching back to London in 1962 traces his work through European and American galleries, public venues and art fairs.
Strong contours, vivid colour and expressive faces define his visual world. His imagination extends from painting to sculptural figures, ceramics, vases and painted objects. Human character remains a recurring subject: playful, intense, tender and unpredictable. Each new surface offers another way to explore the relationship between line, form and feeling.
The Keil Collection Heidelberg has presented his work through exhibitions, publications and films. Milestones include the 2012 Schwetzingen retrospective, the 2013 Aufbruch exhibition in Heidelberg, work with the Majolika-Manufaktur Karlsruhe and the 2022 IchFarbe anniversary exhibition at Heidelberg Castle. His Xylon Museum stays also introduced a sustained exploration of printmaking.
Peter Keil continues to paint, experiment and return to ideas. His lifelong mission remains to make people happy through art: to bring colour into everyday life and create works that people can live with. Until his last breath, he will pursue that mission.