Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Larry Rivers "Double Portrait of Berdie" (1955)


When searching through the selected artists, I was struck by Larry Rivers' style. It is at once realistic and impressionistic, emotional and cold, observational and intimate. I chose this painting in particular, which embodies all of those things and more, for how it could influence someone of the New York school of poets and their specific style and mindset.

The woman is depicted in two places at the same time. She is here and there, yet still contained in the single scene of the bedroom. This implies the passage of time, however not a great passage has occurred. The lighting in the bedroom has remained the same, and she is still unclothed. This reminds me of the works of O'Hara, his "take a walk with me, experience this small moment with me" type of writing. Here, we are experiencing this brief moment in the life of Berdie, within her room, within her time. She is inviting the viewer in (by the eye contact on the left), and is, in the same moment, contemplative (by looking out of presumably a window on the right). This encompasses the NY school of thought that poetry can capture a personal moment, share that moment with someone else through art, and in turn become a universal experience of life.

Everything is art. That floral bedspread is just as much a piece of art as Berdie. Art is everything. There should be no distinguishing between one thing being more important, or artistic, than anything else. In that sense, Larry Rivers has treated everything in the room equally. It is all subject to both bouts of extreme realism, and smudged impressions of what was, or ought to be. It is fleeting, and you have to capture what you can when you can, and hope that what you were able to is enough to convey your message. This painting's message seems to be a mirror image of the raw beauty and realistic, kinetic observation of the human condition that was seen in the poetry of this time.

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