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Larry Rivers Papers

Call Number

MSS.293

Date

1952-2010, inclusive

Creator

Rivers, Larry, 1925-2002

Extent

190 Linear Feet
in 108 record cartons, 58 manuscript boxes, 2 half manuscript boxes, 97 photograph binders, 2 film cans, 11 oversize flat boxes, and one shared box

Language of Materials

Materials are in English

Abstract

The Larry Rivers Papers include correspondence, manuscripts, source material, financial and administrative records, photographic material, project files, and audiovisual material related to the life of Larry Rivers, and to his work as an artist, poet, filmmaker and musician.

Biographical Note

Larry Rivers was a painter, poet, jazz musician, videographer and filmmaker active in New York City and the Hamptons beginning in the 1940s and through the 1990s. Born in 1923 in the Bronx, Rivers initially pursued a career as a jazz saxophonist, and then became interested in painting, ultimately establishing himself as one of the most prolific American artists of the mid-20th century. He was resistant to the techniques and theory behind Abstract Expressionism; many of his works are considered progenitors of the Pop Art movement.

Following an honorable medical discharge from the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943, Rivers studied music theory and composition at the Juilliard School. In the summers, Rivers toured with various jazz bands. During a residency in a music hall in Old Orchard Beach, Maine in 1945, Rivers met Jane Freilicher, whose husband Jack played in Rivers's band. Freilicher introduced Rivers to painting, and his career ambitions began to shift. In 1947, having moved to Manhattan and become a regular on the downtown jazz and literary scene, Rivers enrolled in Hans Hofmann's school of painting.

Rivers's first solo exhibition of paintings occurred at the Jane Street Gallery in 1949. He spent most of the following year in Paris. In 1951 Rivers completed a B.A. in Art Education at New York University and began painting full time, under the representation of Tibor de Nagy Gallery. The first of several solo shows at the gallery occurred in 1951. John Bernard Myers, a partner at Tibor de Nagy, was an eager promoter of Rivers's early work. Other early proponents included the poets John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch and Frank O'Hara, with whom Rivers would collaborate on many projects over the course of his career. In 1953 Rivers relocated to Southampton, Long Island, along with his sons Joseph and Steven and his mother in-law "Berdie" Burger.

1953 proved a turning point in Rivers's career with the completion and exhibition of his epic painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware. With its muddy color palate, figurative technique and historical subject matter, the painting was iconoclastic alongside most major contemporary artworks, which adhered stringently to the theories and representational techniques of Abstract Expressionism. The painting was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in 1955.

In the early 1950s Rivers began experimenting with other art forms, including sculpture and set design. He first worked with plaster, then wire sculpture, and his first sculpture exhibition opened in 1954. He contributed sets to numerous theater and opera productions, beginning with Frank O'Hara's "Try! Try!" in 1952, as well as later works by LeRoi Jones, Kenward Elmslie, Kenneth Koch, and an adaptation of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex directed by Lukas Foss.

In 1961 Rivers lived in Paris with his fiancée, Clarice Price. Their studio was adjacent to that of artists Niki de Saint-Phalle and Jean Tinguely. The neighbors became fast friends and collaborated on numerous works, beginning with Rivers and Tinguely's The Friendship of America and France. Rivers completed several major works while in Paris, including the French Vocabulary Lessons series and Proto-Pop works such as the Lucky Strike and French Money series, which were exhibited at the Galerie Rive Droite.

Rivers completed another monumental work, History of the Russian Revolution: From Marx to Maykovsky, a mixed media construction of several paintings and sculptures measuring over 30 feet long and 14 feet high, in 1965. It debuted at the final stop of Rivers's first touring retrospective exhibition, at the Jewish Museum in New York.

In 1966, Rivers was devastated by the sudden tragic death at age 40 of Frank O'Hara, a former lover, intimate friend and collaborator, and a major muse for Rivers.

The following year, Rivers joined film director Pierre Gaisseau to produce a television documentary in Central Africa. Filming was completed over two trips; in Benin in 1968 Rivers and Gaisseau were arrested as suspected Western mercenaries, and nearly executed. The film, Africa & I, provided Rivers with a chance to explore a lifelong fascination with Africa, and strengthened his interest in moving image work.

Beginning in 1969 Rivers's paintings underwent a stylistic shift as he began working with spray cans and airbrushing, as well as constructing 3-dimensional surfaces for canvases using layered foam board. During the same period Rivers began working with videotape. He produced several ½" open reel video works in the 1970s, many documentary in nature, often in collaboration with his son Steven, and/or video artists Michel Auder and Diana Molinari. In 1976, Larry and Steven Rivers traveled to the Soviet Union as a guest of the Union of Soviet Artists. They brought a video camera and captured footage of their travels and visits to artists' studios.

Rivers worked on several thematic series of works throughout the 1980s and 90s, including The Continuing Interest in Abstract Art, History of Matzah (The Story of the Jews), Make Believe Ballroom, Art and the Artist, and The History of Hollywood. In 1992 What Did I Do? The Unauthorized Autobiography, written with Arnold Weinstein, was published. Rivers continued to create and show work, dividing his time between his loft building on East 14th Street in New York, his house in Southampton, and his studio in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, until his death in 2002.

Sources:

"Chronology." Larry Rivers Foundation. Web. Accessed 19 May 2014. http://larryriversfoundation.org/chronology.html.

Rivers, Larry, with Arnold Weinstein. What Did I Do? The Unauthorized Autobiography. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.

For comprehensive biographical information and chronology, visit the Larry Rivers Foundation at: http://www.larryriversfoundation.org.

Arrangement

The Larry Rivers Papers are arranged primarily at the folder level, divided into series based on their original order and characteristic affinities which emerged during processing. Folder titles are based on original labeling. At times titles were marginally altered for the sake of uniformity. Any titles inferred by the archivist are enclosed in square brackets; these were coined using the example of other similar files in the archives.

Oversize materials and objects were removed from their original locations to allow for adequate housing, and can be found in the oversize series in the finding aid.

The collection is arranged into 17 series:
Series I: Correspondence
Series II: Manuscripts & Writings
Series III: Photographic Material
Series IV: Project Files
Series V: Source Material
Series VII: Music
Series VIII: Administrative Files
Series IX: Financial Records
Series X: Legal Records
Series XI: Medical Records
Series XII: Real Estate
Series XIII: Personal Files
Series XIV: Sound recordings
Series XV: Film
Series XVI: Video recordings
Series XVII: Data Storage
Series XVIII: Commercial Media Collection

Scope and Content

The Larry Rivers Papers include correspondence, manuscripts, ephemera, photographic material, business and administrative records, source material, film, video recordings, audio Recordings, sheet music, legal and financial records. Materials in the archive document Rivers' life and career as a painter, poet, videographer, filmmaker, and musician. The collection is arranged into 17 series:

Series I: Correspondence primarily contains personal correspondence. As many of Rivers' personal friends were also associates and collaborators, the content of this series often straddles the line between the personal and the professional.

Series II: Manuscripts & Writings contains written works by Rivers as well as manuscripts and drafts of works by other artists, including poems, plays, films, interviews, lectures, papers, and Rivers' autobiography.

Series III: Photographic Material contains photographic prints, slides, contact sheets and negatives. In addition to the collection of photographic prints documenting Rivers' life and career, this series contains several inventory binders and source material.

Series IV: Project Files contains archival materials related to the artistic career of Larry Rivers. These include business correspondence, exhibition files, preparatory notes, ephemera and work documentation.

Series V: Source Material contains source files for Rivers' artworks, primarily photographic material.

Series VI: Clippings contains articles clipped from newspapers, magazines and other published materials, some to be used as research material, others for documentation purposes.

Series VII: Music contains materials related to Rivers' musical career, including sheet music, correspondence and ephemera related to different bands and musical performances.

Series VIII: Administrative Files contains materials related to the operations of Larry Rivers' Studio. These include memoranda, meeting minutes, documentation of conservation work and artwork photography, and collections of exhibition documentation for both Larry Rivers and other artists.

Series IX: Financial Records contains financial records related to Larry Rivers' personal and artistic career. This series is restricted; permission must be obtained from a Fales archivist for access to these materials.

Series X: Legal Records contains legal documents, including those related to specific legal cases, law research, and parking/traffic violations.

Series XI: Medical Records contains medical records. This series is restricted.

Series XII: Real Estate contains records related to properties owned by Larry Rivers. These include homes in Southampton and Zihuatanejo, Mexico, as well as the famous loft at 404 East 14th Street.

Series XIII: Personal Files contains materials unrelated to Larry Rivers' artistic or musical career. These include files related to Rivers' family and various community/outreach organizations.

Series XIV: Audio contains audio cassettes and reels.

Series XV: Film contains film reels, primarily 16mm acetate film.

Series XVI: Video contains ½" open reel, ¾" Umatic, VHS, and Betamax video.

Series XVII: Data Storage comprises seven 3 ½" floppy disks containing source material.

Series XVIII: Commercial Media Collection comprises Rivers' collection of vinyl records, audiocassettes, CDs and DVDs.

Subjects

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers. Appointments are necessary for the use of manuscript and archival collections.

Some materials have been restricted by Fales Library and the Larry Rivers Foundation due to potentially sensitive information contained in certain areas. Restricted materials are clearly indicated in the finding aid.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection, including for research purposes, must be secured from the Larry Rivers Foundation. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); Larry Rivers Papers; MSS 293; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.

Custodial History

The Larry Rivers Papers were purchased by the NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections from the Larry Rivers Foundation in 2010.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Access copies for some materials are available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Please contact fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Related Materials

Patty Mucha Papers (MSS.342)

Collection processed by

Nicholas Martin

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-02-06 14:20:25 -0500.
Language: Description is in English.

Revisions to this Guide

October 2023: Updated by Anna Björnsson McCormick to include previously undescribed films
December 2023: Updated by Anna Björnsson McCormick to include video inventory
January 2024: Updated by Anna Björnsson McCormick to reflect the rehousing of materials

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012