Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor.
Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of
Pop art, he was one of the first artists to merge non-objective, non-narrative art with narrative and objective abstraction.
Career
Larry Rivers was born as Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg in the
Bronx, New York
The Bronx () is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state, state of New York (state), New York. It is south of Westchester County, New York, Westchester County; north and east of the ...
in the family of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. Rivers took up painting in 1945 and studied at the
Hans Hofmann School from 1947–48.
He earned a BA in art education from
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
in 1951.
His work was quickly acquired by the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
. A 1953 painting ''
Washington Crossing the Delaware'' was damaged in fire at the museum five years later.
He was a
pop artist of the
New York School, reproducing everyday objects of American popular culture as art. He was one of eleven New York artists featured in the opening exhibition at the
Terrain Gallery
The Terrain Gallery, or the Terrain, is an art gallery and educational center at 141 Greene Street in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1955 with a philosophic basis: the ideas of Aesthetic Realism and the Siegel Theory of Opposi ...
in 1955.
During the early 1960s Rivers lived in the
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of ...
, notable for its artistic residents such as
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
Janis Joplin,
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...
,
Arthur C. Clarke,
Dylan Thomas,
Sid Vicious
John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an icon of the ...
and multiple people associated with
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...
's Factory and where he brought several of his French
nouveau réalistes friends like
Yves Klein
Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...
who wrote there in April 1961 his ''Manifeste de l'hôtel Chelsea'',
Arman,
Martial Raysse
Martial Raysse (born 12 February 1936 in Golfe-Juan) is a French artist and actor. He lives in Issigeac, France. He holds the record for the most expensive work sold by a living French artist.
Biography
Raysse was born in a ceramicist family in ...
,
Jean Tinguely
Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century. Tinguely's art ...
,
Niki de Saint-Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle (; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 193021 May 2002) was a French-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monum ...
,
Christo
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
,
Daniel Spoerri
Daniel Spoerri (born 27 March 1930) is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania. Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by in ...
or
Alain Jacquet
Alain Jacquet (22 February 1939 – 4 September 2008) was a French artist representative of the Nouvelle Figuration movement that was linked to the American Pop Art movement.
Life and career
Jacquet was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Th ...
, several of whom, like Rivers, left some pieces of art in the lobby of the hotel for payment of their rooms. In 1965, Rivers had his first comprehensive retrospective in five important American museums.
His final work for the exhibition was ''The History of the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
'', which was later on extended permanent display at the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desig ...
in
Washington, DC. He spent 1967 in London collaborating with the American painter
Howard Kanovitz
Howard Kanovitz (February 9, 1929 – February 2, 2009) was a pioneering painter in the Photorealist and Hyperrealist Movements, which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in response to the abstract art movement.
Howard Kanovitz, whose 50-year car ...
.
In 1968, Rivers traveled to Africa for a second time with
Pierre Dominique Gaisseau
Pierre Dominique Gaisseau was a French documentary film-maker best known for his documentary '' Sky Above and Mud Beneath'', which was awarded the first Oscar for a documentary. The film is an account of an expedition into the previously unexp ...
to finish their documentary ''Africa and I'', which was a part of the groundbreaking
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
series ''Experiments in Television''. During this trip they narrowly escaped execution as suspected mercenaries.
During the 1970s, Rivers worked closely with Diana Molinari and
Michel Auder
Michel may refer to:
* Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name)
* Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers)
* Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...
on many video tape projects, including the infamous ''Tits'', and also worked in
neon.
Rivers's legs appeared in
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
and
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
's 1971 film ''
Up Your Legs Forever
''Up Your Legs Forever'' is a 1971 film by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The film was made on 14 December 1970 on West 61st Street in Manhattan, New York City, though the couple did not have permits to work in the United States at that time.
The fi ...
''.
Music
From 1940–1945 he worked as a jazz saxophonist in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, changing his name to Larry Rivers in 1940 after being introduced as "Larry Rivers and the Mudcats".
He studied at the
Juilliard School of Music in 1945–46, along with
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
, with whom he remained friends until Davis's death in 1991.
Personal life
Larry Rivers was born in the Bronx to Samuel and Sonya Grossberg, Jewish immigrants from Ukraine.
In 1945, he married Augusta Berger, and they had one son, Steven.
Rivers also adopted Berger's son from a previous relationship, Joseph, and reared both children after the couple divorced.
In 1961, he married Clarice Price, a Welsh school teacher who cared for his two sons.
The relationship lasted six years before the two separated.
In their time together, however, the pair had two daughters, Gwynne and Emma.
Shortly after, he lived and collaborated with Diana Molinari, who featured in many of his works of the 1970s.
Rivers then lived with Sheila Lanham, a Baltimore artist and poet.
In the early 1980s, Rivers and East Village figurative painter Daria Deshuk lived together and in 1985 they had a son, Sam Deshuk Rivers (now Sam D. Rivers).
Rivers also maintained a relationship with poet
Frank O'Hara
Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...
in the late 1950s and delivered the eulogy at O'Hara's funeral in 1966.
Throughout his career, Rivers maintained studios in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Southampton, Long Island, and
Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Zihuatanejo (), or Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, is the fourth-largest city in the Mexican state of Guerrero. It was known by 18th century English mariners as Chequetan or Seguataneo. Politically the city belongs to the municipalities of Mexico, municipali ...
.
Rivers died in 2002, leaving behind his five children and then companion poet Jeni Olin.
Legacy
His primary gallery was the Marlborough Gallery in New York City. In 2002 a major retrospective of Rivers' work was held at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...
in Washington, D.C.
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
bought correspondences and other documents from th
Larry Rivers Foundationto house in their archive.
However, his daughters Gwynne and Emma objected to one particular film being displayed, as it depicts them naked as children and adolescents. The film's purpose is supposedly the documentation of their growth through
puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a bo ...
, but it was made when they were not consenting adults.
The matter was addressed in the December 2010 issue of the magazine ''
Vanity Fair'',
and the October 2010 issue of ''
Grazia''. The film will never be publicly displayed as requested by both children.
See also
*
Bodley Gallery The Bodley Gallery was an art gallery in New York City, from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. The Bodley specialized in contemporary and modern art. David Mann was director of the gallery during its heyday and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Braun (a.k. ...
*
LGBT culture in New York City
*
List of LGBT people from New York City
References
Further reading
* Baskind, Samantha, ''Jewish Artists and the Bible in Twentieth-Century America,''Philadelphia, PA, Penn State University Press, 2014,
* Marika Herskovic
''New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,''(New York School Press, 2000.) . p. 8; p. 32; p. 38; p. 310–313
External links
101 / EXHIBITMarlborough GalleryFrank O'Hara — Rainbow Warrior
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivers, Larry
1923 births
2002 deaths
Jewish painters
Jewish American artists
American pop artists
People from the Bronx
People from Manhattan
Artists from the Bronx
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Bisexual artists
20th-century American printmakers
American expatriates in Mexico
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
20th-century LGBT people
20th-century American male artists