Larry rivers artwork

Larry Rivers born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg, August 17, — August 14, was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. From —45 he worked as a jazz saxophonist in New York City, changing his name to Larry Rivers in after being introduced as "Larry Rivers and the Mudcats" at a local pub. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music in —46, along with Miles Davis, with whom he remained friends until Davis's death in Rivers is considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art , because he was one of the first artists to really merge non-objective, non-narrative art with narrative and objective abstraction.

Rivers took up painting in and studied at the Hans Hofmann School from — He was a pop artist of the New York School, reproducing everyday objects of American popular culture as art.

Larry rivers biography

He was one of eleven New York artists featured in the opening exhibition at the Terrain Gallery in In Rivers had his first comprehensive retrospective in five important American museums. During he was in London collaborating with the American painter Howard Kanovitz. During this trip they narrowly escaped execution as suspected mercenaries. During the s Rivers worked closely with Diana Molinari and Michel Auder on many video tape projects, including the infamous Tits, and also worked in neon.