Artist Larry Rivers has shocked, scandalized, andintrigued audiences for close to fiftyyears. Riversemerged as a pop art pioneer in the 195os and laterbecame one of America's most important figurativepainters. Ever the iconoclast, Rivers is a multimediaartist, working in painting, sculpture, collage, andinstallation pieces. His eclectic style draws from asurprising range of sources - from historic eventslike Washington crossing the Delaware, the RussianRevolution, and the Holocaust to Hollywood movies.
Artist Larry Rivers has shocked, scandalized, andintrigued audiences for close to fiftyyears. Riversemerged as a pop art pioneer in the 195os and laterbecame one of America's most important figurativepainters. Ever the iconoclast, Rivers is a multimediaartist, working in painting, sculpture, collage, andinstallation pieces. His eclectic style draws from asurprising range of sources - from historic eventslike Washington crossing the Delaware, the RussianRevolution, and the Holocaust to Hollywood movies.He courted controversy, as in his shrewd satire ofManet's luscious nude Olympia, painted in blackface.Rivers worked abroad, linking the art worlds of Parisand New York; he became notorious not only for hiswork, but for his provocative lifestyle. He movesfluidly outside the traditional art world, accomplishedas a jazz musician, writer, and filmmaker. At ageseventy-eight Rivers has never had a complete retro-spective of his work. Now the Corcoran Gallery ofArt in Washington, D.C., brings his legacy to lightin this definitive Rivers monograph.
Barbara Rose, one of the foremost critics of Amer-ican art, and Corcoran chief curator Jaequelyn DaysSerwer provide substantial essays that create acomplex portrait of a complex man and his oeuvre.The foreword is written by David C. Levy, director ofthe Corcoran; Levy has been for manyyears a closefriend of Rivers and fellow band member. In additionto the portfolio there are many unpublished candidphotographs of Rivers that illuminate the man, hislife and loves, and the art scene of the last fivedecades. Larry Rivers: Art and the Artist is long-awaited - a rich testament to Rivers' bold legacy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION
FOREWORD:
MY FRIENDSHIP WITH LARRY RIVERS
DAVID C. LEVY
LARRY RIVERS:
PAINTER OF MODERN LIFE
BARBARA ROSE
LARRY RIVERS AND HIS
"SMORGASBORD OF THE RECOGNIZABLE"
JACQUELYN DAYS SERWER
Plates
LIST OF PLATES
LARRY RIVERS CHRONOLOGY
ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS