Larry Rivers in his Long Island studio, September 17, 1985. [Photo: Allen Ginsberg / courtesy of the Estate of Allen Ginsberg]
Larry Rivers was born this day in 1922, Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg, in the Bronx, one of the great mavericks, one of the great American artist-heroes. He passed away in 2002 just shy of his 79th birthday.
Larry and Allen went way back, at least as far as Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie’s 1959 beat classic Pull My Daisy where he played Milo, the railroad brakeman. Their lives always seemed to intersect, and in 1995, 2 years before Allen died, he moved directly below Larry in his East Village loft. Larry even made an appearance at Allen’s deathbed in his pink silk pajamas playing his saxophone shortly after Allen passed away.
#larryrivers #americanartists #allenginsberg #beatgeneration #pullmydaisy (at Long Island, NY)