Artist:
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Larry Rivers
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Title:
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The Studio
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Date:
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1956
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Medium:
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Oil on canvas
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Dimensions:
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82 1/2 x 193 1/2 in. (209.6 x 491.5 cm)
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Credit Line:
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The John R. Van Derlip Fund
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Location:
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Gallery 375
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Although influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, as this painting's size and gestural style reveal, Larry Rivers remained committed to portraying recognizable figures. Here he depicts a nude African-American woman and also friends and family (from left to right: the poet Frank O'Hara; Rivers's sons, Joseph and Steven; and his mother-in-law, Berdie). Rivers himself appears in the pinned-up drawing at the upper right.
This work refers to a masterpiece of a century earlier, The Painter's Studio, by the French realist painter Gustave Courbet. Like Courbet, Rivers examined his own artistic role and motivations by portraying his studio. The African-American woman holding a banner with the half-erased legend "Liberty" is an allusion to contemporary social and political problems.
Artist/Creator(s)
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Name:
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Rivers, Larry
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Nationality:
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American
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Life Dates:
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American, 1923 - 2002
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Object Description
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Inscriptions:
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Classification:
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Paintings
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Physical Description:
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Portraits. Interior.
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Creation Place:
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North America, United States, , ,
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Accession #:
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63.15
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Owner:
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The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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