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Larry Rivers (1923-2002)
Larry Rivers, whose art is renowned for bridging Abstract Expressionism’s gestural style and Pop Art’s irreverent references to popular culture, was an American polymath – a prolific artist, jazz musician, writer, documentary filmmaker, actor, and teacher. Born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg in the Bronx, NY, in 1923 he began a career as a professional jazz saxophonist and soon changed his name after being introduced as “Larry Rivers and the Mudcats” at a New York City club. He served in 1942 in the United States Army Air Corps, but within a year was honorably discharged from the armed forces for medical reasons. In 1944 he studied music theory and composition at the Juilliard School of Music, where he met and became friends with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. In 1945, after being shown a cubist painting by Georges Braque, he started painting. His studies at the Hans Hofmann’s School of painting were followed by a B.A. in art education from New York University in 1951. His works are represented in major museum and private collections around the world. In 1984 Rivers mined his strong sense of Jewish heritage to illustrate I.B. Singer’s The Magician of Lublin for a deluxe edition published by The Limited Editions Club.
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