Navigating the history of Larry Rivers' cinematic footprint requires untangling his verified filmography, his collaborative projects, and the realities of tracking down rare archival media. The Cinematic World of Larry Rivers
After a front-page exposé by The New York Times detailing the family's distress, NYU officially withdrew its acquisition of Growing . The university requested the foundation remove the problematic materials from the collection entirely.
He was famous for pushing boundaries—most notably with his controversial 1965 painting The Dutch Masters and his highly intimate, often provocative video collaborations with filmmaker Michel Auder in the 1970s and 1980s. Rivers viewed video not just as a tool for documentation, but as a living canvas capable of capturing psychological truths that paint could not. Decoding Growing (1981)
Rivers' artistic style was defined by his role as a bridge between the angst-ridden brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism and the cool, detached imagery of Pop Art. He shocked the art world by reintroducing figurative and historical subjects into contemporary painting, most famously with his 1953 masterpiece "Washington Crossing the Delaware". Throughout his life, he was known for his "outspokenness, irreverence, wit, and controversial character". His life was a whirlwind of creativity, drug use, and bisexuality, including a well-known friendship with the jazz legends Charlie Parker and Miles Davis. This unapologetic, boundary-pushing persona is the crucial context for the creation of "Growing."
