Renewal of Sexual Symbols and Metaphors n Works by Larry Rivers
Abstract
In tableaux by Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Boucher, Goya and Van Gogh, to mention only a few of the many celebrated painters who indulged in sexual symbolism, female nudes in a variety of reclining poses brazenly proclaimed their voluptuous traits from their couches. Luscious cupids fluttered expectantly, silken drapes rustled and dark mysterious trees moved their branches in a manner to suggest primeval caresses. More often than not the sensual imagery and symbolism were concealed under a veil of myth, while words or objects placed in the picture plane to convey metaphorical associations were rare. The history of these important iconographical elements merits full discussion by scholars, but not in the space of an article. Rather, it is felt preferable to confine one's attention to a single artist, in this case, Larry Rivers. An inheritor of Western Art traditions, he employed at one period in his vibrant career sexual symbols and metaphors in numerous juxtapositions with measured levity and a degree of hermeticism.1
References
Overviews of aspects of Rivers' art may be studied in the monographs by Sam Hunter, Larry Rivers, New York 1969; Larry Rivers with Carol Brightman, Drawings and Digressions, New York 1979; Larry Rivers. Retrospektive. I Zeichnungen. II Bilder und Skuipturen, ed. C. Haenlein, Hanover 1980; Helen A. Harrison, Larry Rivers, New York 1984. The great artistic currents in which Rivers was moving in the period that interests us in this paper are discussed by I. Sandier, American Art of the 1960's, New York 1988. In a more recent work entitled Larry Rivers, New York 1989, Sam Hunter included compositions created by the artist in the last twenty years.
See J. Gruen. '"Down Memory Lane with Larry Rivers'Golden Oldies," Art News, 77, Nov. 1978, p. 85.
J. Gruen, The Party's Over Now, New York 1972, p. 137.
The series includes Parts of the Body - French 1962; Parts of the Body - French Vocabulary 1961-1962; Parts of the Body - Italian Vocabulary Lesson ( two versions) 1962-1963; Parts of the Body - Polish 1962; Parts of the Body - English Vocabulary Lesson 1963.
Rivers and Brightman, Drawings and Digressions, p. 139.
Ibid., and Harrison, p. 77.
Inspiration from works by earlier Masters is a well known characteristic of Rivers' art. Tableaux by Boucher and Jacques-Louis David as models will be discussed below.
Reproduced in Retrospekfive. Zeichnungen, p. 122.
A photograph of the structure may be viewed in Re:rospektive. Bilder und Skuipturen, p. 165 and Harrison, p. 79. The Drawing for Lampman 1966 is reproduced in Refrospektive. Zeichnungen, p. 101.
Harrison, p. 131, n. 14 comments: "Originally, the female figure was derived from a blond "Playmate of the Month," but after a suggestion that Playboy might sue over the appropriation of the image, Rivers substituted a black-haired, rather androgynous figure, whose ambiguity somewhat blunts the work's social critique."
Harrison, p. 80.
Hunter, 1969, P. 48.
Harrison, p. 80.
A drawing of Lampman Loves It was incorporated into Homage to Picasso 1974, reproduced by Harrison, p. 101. Nostalgia for his past artistic achievements is also a Rivers' trait.
Reproduced by Harrison, p. 80.
Cf. Russell Bowman, "Words and Images: a Persistent Paradox," Art Journal, Winter, 1985, p. 336.
Harrison, p. 103, who reproduces On the Phone Ion p. 120. On the Phone II may be viewed in Larry Rivers, the Continuing Interest in Abstract Art, Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery, New York 1981, P. 11.
The association of the doodle and Eberhards in these compositions with similar provocative shapes evoked in poems by Rivers, is discussed in my paper "Larry Rivers: the Poet and the Painter," Literature in North Queensland, 15, no. 3, 1987, pp. 21-6 (4 figs.).
Reproduced in Harrison, p. 92. David's portrait of Napoleon may be
conveniently studied in Retrospehtive. Bilder und Skulpiuren, p. 158.
Reproduced in Harrison, p. 113 and front cover. Mention is made of this composition in a discussion between the patron and the artist; see Jeffrey H. Loria, "Golden Oldies: an Interview with Larry Rivers," Arts Magazine, 53, Nov. 1978, pp. 104-6.
Reproduced in Retrospektive, Bilder und Skulpturen, p. 159
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