How To Draw: Reclining Nudes and Rectangles with Legs, 1962
Mixed media collage
14 x 17 inches
Biography
Larry Rivers was born Yitzhok Loiza Grossberg in the Bronx in 1923. After starting his career as a jazz saxophonist, he changed his name to Larry Rivers. Rivers began painting in 1945 after encountering a musical motif based on a painting by Georges Braque; another account states that he was shown a book on modern art by a band mate. However the impulse to be an artist came to him, he showed a preternatural ability. In 1947 Rivers enrolled at the Hans Hoffman School on the GI Bill. He continued his studies at New York University, where he developed a style that would ultimately serve as a bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. Often depicting realistically rendered figures on semi-abstracted backgrounds, his work aptly reflects both a dedication to painterly tradition and a pursuit of the contemporary; specifically that of provocative and controversial subject matter.
