Maxwell Davidson Gallery presents Larry Rivers: Public and Private Continued..., the gallery’s first exhibition for the acclaimed American artist Larry Rivers. From the beginning and throughout his career Rivers was always breaching the visual line between public and private imagery; from historical subject matter and old masters, Rivers also painted directly from sources that were most available to him. In this regard, his family and friends were a constant source of information guiding the imagery of his work.
Interspersed among the various portraits of friends and family, Rivers - the pioneer of “allowable subject matter” - began incorporating commercially recognized objects and giving them equal and sometimes more attention (through imagery and titles) than the actual figures posing.
From Webster and Rembrandt through Cezanne and Matisse, cigars, cigarettes, friends, children, wives and girlfriends, Rivers combines or extracts individually from an ever expansive visual vocabulary that in one form or another has made its way into his world, into our world. In a move right out of Rivers’ playbook, this exhibition appropriated the language from that work and added the word “Continued” to emphasize an irony that Rivers would have embraced; a selection of art representing public and private life that together reveal a fresh portrait of the artist, suitable for his own “Continuing Interests.”
Illustrated catalogue available with an essay by David Joel of the Larry Rivers Foundation.
Please contact Brittany LoSchiavo at info@davidsongallery.com or (212) 759-7555 with any inquires.