The Studio
Larry Rivers
1956
image courtesy of ARTstor
Larry Rivers: saxophonist, poet, and painter. Rivers was a man in search of a way to make a modern history painting. In 1956, Rivers accomplished his goal in creating the painting, "The Studio". This large scale painting embodies movement throughout the piece by the use of color and space. The figure in this piece conveys a very primitive energy, perhaps due to the figure being in a different color than what was considered to be the norm. Up until this point, most pieces of art conveyed the figure as being pale, so Rivers was taking a large leap in the other direction by showing a figure in a different tonality. This painting can now publicly be seen at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Good start, Katelyn. There is a bit of erasure in the image, which you may be referring to in your mention of the difference in the tonality of the central figure. What else seems 'new' to you? Can you expand on your assessment of the 'primitive energy' in the work?
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