Biography

Larry Rivers was a contemporary American artist known for his work in Abstract Expressionism, and his influence and collaboration with the Chelsea Hotel scene and Warhol’s Factory. Rivers was born in 1923 in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. In the 1940s he began painting and studied at the Hans Hofmann School before getting a BA in art education from New York University in 1951. Rivers pioneered the early Pop Art scene, finding and commanding the moment between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art where his bold sense of color and loyalty to figuration reigned supreme. Later in his career, as the influence of and his interest in Warhol’s Factory grew, Rivers began incorporating airbrushing, stenciling, printmaking, and assemblage in his art. One of the first artists to experiment with non-narrative art and objective abstraction, Rivers’ work was crucial for the development of the Pop Art scene. Rivers passed away in 2002 after a major retrospective that same year at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Today his work can be found at museums worldwide, including The Art Institute, The Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery of Art.