Genesis 1:5 is a three-color lithograph created and printed in 1962 by American artist Harold Emerson Keeler. It is pencil signed in the upper right within the image and editioned 5/20 in the upper left image. Genesis 1:5 was printed by the artist on BFK wove paper at the Tamarind Lithographic Workshop in Los Angeles. The reference for this lithograph is Tamarind 481 and the image and sheet size measure 20-1/4 x 15 inches.
The biblical passage Genesis 1:5 refers to the creation of the world, Chapter 1, verse 5 that loosely translates to 'God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.' The black gestural drawing surrounding the red disc at the center of the image suggests the sun’s kinetic energy. Keeler created explosive movement around a red ball, thus presenting the genesis of our planet. Gasses and dust particles swirl around a young developing sun, which eventually form planet Earth and her moon after countless collisions between dust particles, asteroids, and other growing planets.
Harold
Emerson Keeler, painter,
printmaker, printer and teacher, was born in Denver, Colorado on
October 9, 1905. He began his formal art training at the University of Colorado
and the Chicago Art Institute from 1928 to 1931. After moving to Denver in
1932, he worked as a freelance lithographer in addition to making his own
prints. In 1934, Keeler was employed by the Denver Art Museum as a print researcher
and focused on Albrecht Durer's woodcuts. He was supervisor of the Colorado WPA
Block Print Project between 1936 and 1937, during which time he printed several
portfolios of multiple artists' works alongside fellow printmaker William
Traher. From 1937 to 1940 he worked independently and taught at the Denver High
School.
Keeler moved to Seattle, Washington in July of 1942 and was hired by the Boeing
Company as an engineering artist and offset lithographer. He received a Ford
Foundation Fellowship in 1961 at the Tamarind Lithographic Workshop in Los
Angeles. At Tamarind he worked on several independent and collaborative
projects, helping to establish the burgeoning workshop as a magnet for
experimental lithography. After returning to Seattle
in 1962, Keeler worked at the Burke Museum. He also printed Mark Tobey's
lithograph Urban Renewal in 1963 for
Tobey's original book, The World of The
Market.
Keeler was a member of and exhibited with the Northwest Printmakers. His work was included in group exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1932, 1934 and 1938; the Library of Congress, 1935; the Whitney Museum, 1942; the National Academy of Design, 1943; and the 1st National Print Annual held at the Brooklyn Museum, 1947.
The work of Harold Keeler is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; the Denver Art Museum, Colorado; the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas; the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; and the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Harold Emerson Keeler died on 7 June 1968 in Seattle, Washington.
