Introduction in Larry Rivers: Recent Relief Paintings

Vonnegut wrote an Introduction in Larry Rivers: Recent Relief Paintings, for an exhibition by that artist from December 7, 1988-January 7, 1989 at the Marlborough Gallery in New York City.

Summary

Larry Rivers, 1961

Larry Rivers is an anomaly among artists, having never even considered making a picture until he was twenty-three. It turned out he was an artist, which much surely be genetic unless he has been possessed by "the ghost somebody like Albrecht Dürer". He also plays jazz saxophone, working with many other big musicians. He has no interest in fashion, be it in clothes, art, or conversation. Despite his fame and monetary success, he has continued to work the same way on his own schedule. The only points of reference Rivers has for his work are Red Grooms and perhaps their mutual teacher Hans Hofmann, although Rivers says he "only understood about half of what Hofmann tried to tell him". His works are filled with ghosts, some of whom are still alive, and perhaps that's "what makes them deep".