Anna Elizabeth Keener, painter, graphic artist, teacher and writer, was born
in Flagler, Colorado, growing up in Dalhart, TX. Possessed of a talent for drawing, she attended Bethany College, Lindsborg, KS, earned a BFA Degree in 1916 and a Master of Arts Degree in 1918, was an assistant to Birger Sandzen there for four years and also taught painting. She also attended summer sessions at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1915-1917.

Keener attended evening classes at the Detroit School of Design while serving in the US Navy during WWI. Subsequently, she taught in the Globe, Arizona public schools, then at Kansas City High School in Kansas, (1920-1923 while attending the Kansas City Art Institute. Following her marriage in ‘23 and a a teaching assignment at Sul Ross State Univ. in Alpine, TX (1925-26), Keener took time off to raise twin girls. Returning to the classroom in the 30’s she moved to New Mexico, where she taught in schools in Red River, Ojo Caliente, Las Vegas and Gallup, and, in the latter town, painted a mural, “the Zuni Potters,” in the McKinley County courthouse.

Keener studied in Mexico City in 1941, and in 1942, and then began a twelve year period as a teacher and head of the art department at Eastern New Mexico University, Portales. During this time she was back in school in 1949 at Colorado State Teachers College, Greeley, and in 1951, received a Master of Arts degree from he University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. She studied again in Mexico City in 1953, and afterward, settled in Santa Fe, where she spent he remainder of her life devoted to painting and print making

Keener focused primarily on outdoor subjects, and by the mid-20’s her output included scenes in Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado and the southwest. In addition to the aforementioned mural in the McKinley County courthouse, she created commissioned paintings for Bandelier National Monument, Los Alamos, New Mexico, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, and for the Texas Historical
Society, Canyon, TX

Works Held:
-Birger Sandzen Memorial Gallery, Lindsborg, KS
-Sul Ross State Univ., Alpine, TX
-Panhandle Plains HIstorical Museum, Canyon, TX
-Texas Historical Society
-Museum of Fine Arts and New Mexico State Library, Santa Fe
-Santa Fe Public Library
-Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico
-Fred Jones Museum, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
-John H. Vanderpoel Art Assoc., Chicago, IL
-San Francisco Public Library

Exhibitions:
-Annual Exhib. of Texas Artists, Dallas, 1927
-Annual Texas Artists Exhib., Fort Forth, 1927
-Southern States Art League Annual Exhib., 1930
-Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe (1953 prize, 1956 and 1958 one-woman, 1968
-Springville Museum of Art, Utah (1957 and 1958, one-woman
-Tucson Art Festival, Arizona, 1958, one-woman
-Sandzen Memorial Gallery, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1959, one-woman
-University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1964,one-woman
-High Plains Gallery, Amarillo, Texas, 1960, one-woman
-Women Artists in Texas 1850-1950, Panhandle Plains Museum,
Canyon, Texas, 1993
-Annual Exhib of Texas Artists, Dallas Woman’s Forum (prize)
-Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
-San Francisco Public Library
-Midwestern Artists Annual Exhib., Kansas City Art Inst., Missouri
-Roswell Museum of Art, Roswell, New Mexico
-Painters and Sculptors of New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1949-1950

Memberships: American Artists Professional League, American Federation
of Arts, Art of America Society, Artists Equity, International Institute of Arts
and Letters, National and New Mexico Art Education Associations, Southern
States Art League, Western Art Association.

Sources: thanks to John and Deborah Powers and Phil and Marian Kovinick

Post Office Box 200008 Denver, CO 80220
voice (303)399-3119
nrsmith1@comcast.net