Larry Rivers

Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, Long Island, and Zihuatanejo, Mexico. He was born in the Bronx to Samuel and Sonya Grossberg, Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. From 1940–45, he worked as a jazz saxophonist in New York City, changing his name to Larry Rivers in 1940 after being introduced as Larry Rivers and the Mudcats at a local pub. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music in 1945–46, along with Miles Davis, with whom he remained friends until Davis died in 1991. Rivers took up painting in 1945 and studied at the Hans Hofmann School from 1947–48. He earned a BA in art education from New York University in 1951. Rivers was a pop artist of the New York School, reproducing everyday objects of American popular culture as art. He was one of eleven New York artists featured in the opening exhibition at the Terrain Gallery in 1955.