Growing 1981 Larry Rivers » «FULL»
Growing (1981) — Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers’s 1981 painting Growing is a compact but revealing work that encapsulates many of the artist’s late-career interests: the compression of autobiography and art history, the interplay of figuration and abstraction, and a wry engagement with American popular culture. Below is a focused, structured essay that situates the painting historically, analyzes its form and content, and assesses its significance within Rivers’s oeuvre and late 20th‑century American art.
Some notable features of Larry Rivers' work in 1981 include:
Alternative Perspectives: In response to her father's work, Emma Rivers has created her own art, such as her "Stage-Set" series, to reclaim her narrative and provide her own perspective on her upbringing. growing 1981 larry rivers
Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian immigrant parents, Rivers grew up in a traditional Jewish household. He developed an interest in art at an early age and attended the Brooklyn Museum of Art School and the American Artists' School. Rivers' early work was influenced by Abstract Expressionism, but he soon transitioned to a more figurative style.
3. Critical Reception and ControversyThe film remains one of the most controversial aspects of Rivers' legacy: Growing (1981) — Larry Rivers Larry Rivers’s 1981
Controversy: The work remained largely unexhibited for decades but became the center of a major ethical and legal debate in 2010. Critics and family members have characterized the footage as exploitative, with some even calling it child pornography due to its intrusive nature. Legal and Ethical Resolution
While Growing is a video work, it reflects Rivers' lifelong obsession with the human figure and "unfashionable" subjects. His style—often described by The Art Story as a bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art—frequently used "iconographic clichés" and personal imagery to challenge established norms. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian immigrant
Text and Graffiti: Rivers was a poet as much as a painter. Scrawled across the lower right quadrant, in his infamous, jittery handwriting, are lines of verse. They read: "Growing / is the mistake / the body keeps making / until it stops." This dark, elegiac text reframes the entire painting. Growing is not a miracle; it is an accumulation of errors—wrinkles, scars, fat, memory.
Subject Matter: The project documented the physical maturation of his two daughters, Gwynne and Emma Tamburlini, over a five-year period from 1976 to 1981.