Growing 1981 Larry Rivers Jun 2026

Searching for "growing 1981 Larry Rivers" is not simply a query about a painting; it is an inquiry into how we age. In this monumental work, Larry Rivers took a universal verb—"growing"—and twisted it until it bled irony. He showed us that to grow is to accumulate loss. To grow is to watch your children surpass you. To grow is to watch the plant wither even as it reaches for the sun.

The painting Growing (oil and mixed media on canvas, approximately 72 x 84 inches) is a quintessential example of Rivers’ "multi-panel" approach. The canvas is not a single, unified perspective but a collage of fragmented moments—a visual diary stapled to a single surface.

To understand Growing , one must look at the artist’s timeline. By 1981, Rivers had survived the tumultuous 60s and 70s. He had moved away from the clean, appropriated imagery of his early Pop works toward a more complex, multi-paneled narrative style often referred to as "History Painting with a dirty mouth." He was also dealing with the recent death of friends (like poet Frank O’Hara) and the aging of his own body. growing 1981 larry rivers

Upon learning of the archive sale, Emma Rivers Tamburlini vehemently protested. She publicly condemned the film, characterizing it as a record of childhood exploitation and a violation of privacy. Tamburlini revealed that the filming sessions caused severe psychological trauma, stating that the project contributed to significant personal struggles and years of subsequent therapy. NYU's Institutional Rejection Opinion | Art for Whose Sake? - The New York Times

Currently, Growing (1981) resides in a private collection in New York, though it was exhibited as part of the Larry Rivers: The Last Decade retrospective at the Jewish Museum (then traveling to the Corcoran Gallery) in the mid-1990s. If you are attempting to locate this piece for academic study, your best resource is the Larry Rivers Foundation archives. The work is rarely traded, as it is considered a crown jewel of his late period. Searching for "growing 1981 Larry Rivers" is not

The devastating impact of Growing on his children has only become fully public in the years since Rivers's death in 2002. Rivers's youngest daughter, Emma Rivers Tamburlini, has been the most outspoken, stating that the project was nothing less than an act of betrayal and exploitation. In a 2010 article for Vanity Fair , she declared her father guilty of creating child pornography, using her and her sister as unwilling subjects to serve his own artistic and voyeuristic interests. She noted the years of torment she endured as a result of her father's actions, stating that she sees him not as a rose among thorns, but "as another thorn". Her older sister, Gwynne, has also spoken of the lingering hurt and anger, telling a reporter years later at a museum opening that the memory of the filming has haunted her since she was a pre-adolescent. While the sisters have said Rivers never touched them inappropriately, they describe the experience as profoundly traumatizing and a violation of the father-child relationship.

is a highly controversial 45-minute experimental film created by the prominent American proto-Pop artist Larry Rivers , documenting the physical development and maturation of his two adolescent daughters. Shot over a five-year period from 1976 to 1981, the film remains one of the most polarizing artifacts in modern art history. It forces a difficult conversation regarding the boundaries between artistic expression, parental ethics, and child exploitation. The Production and Context of Growing To grow is to watch your children surpass you

Get more details about the process and archival ethics. Explore discussions on ethics in contemporary art . Let me know how to proceed! Portrait of the Artist as Creep | Glasstire