Larry Rivers: Art and the Artist - Hardcover

Levy, David; Rose, Barbara; Serwer, Jacquelyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 082122798X ISBN 13: 9780821227985

Publisher: Bulfinch, 2002

Synopsis

The long-overdue retrospective of figurative painter Larry Rivers, a pioneer of Pop art whose eclectic career has spanned a half century and bridged the art worlds of New York and Paris. In association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Bulfinch Press is publishing the first major retrospective of Larry Rivers. Rivers, one of the original Pop artists on the 1950s art scene, is known for his bold and eclectic style. Inspired by sources as diverse as the impressionists, Napoleon, and Hollywood movies, Rivers' work shows a keen sense of history and an adventurous spirit. He was active not only in the visual arts but also in jazz, poetry, and theater. Rivers was a pivotal figure linking together the art scenes in Paris and New York. Still going strong at age 76, he remains a strong presence in the art scene of South Hampton, New York, where he lives and works.

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Rose is the author of Chihuly Projects, Joseph Stella: Flora, The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and Art-as-Art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt. Jacquelyn Days Serwer is Chief Curator at the Corcoran Gallery and the author of several books including, American Kaleidoscope: Themes and Perspectives in Recent Art with the National Museum and Gene Davis: A Memorial Exhibition.

Reviews

Although the work of Rivers, né Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg, inhabits a second-tier status among Pop artists of his generation, his reputation as a good-natured bon vivant of bohemian living is second to almost no one's. With his high cheekbones and aquiline nose, Rivers has cut a handsome figure through the worlds of jazz, film, art and writing since the 1950s, befriending everyone from Frank O'Hara to Willem de Kooning along the way. Billed as a definitive Rivers monograph, this oversized volume from the Corcoran Gallery offers plenty of work to look at, from his early Pop paintings jockeying with those of Johns and Rauschenberg, to his later funky collages. The interpretive and biographical essays by Rose and Serwer are lively and accessible, placing Rivers in a political context as the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, and tracing his adventures from year to year. Finally, the book layers in plenty of photographs capturing the iconoclast as a young man, a middle-aged man and an older man, running his long gauntlet between art and life. 83 full-color and 53 duotone illustrations.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bulfinch
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 082122798X
• ISBN 13: 9780821227985
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 184