Growing 1981 Larry Rivers [cracked] -

: The film focuses on the daily lives of Rivers' two daughters, Gwynne and Emma, during their adolescent years.

Growing (1981) belongs to Larry Rivers (1923–2002), an American painter whose career bridged Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and a revived figurative painting. Known for works that mix loose painterly gestures, appropriated imagery, and autobiographical text, Rivers challenged tidy art-historical categories. Created during a period when he revisited narrative and portraiture alongside symbolic motifs, Growing exemplifies his mature synthesis of image, memory, and cultural commentary.

The production of the film involved Rivers recording his daughters at regular intervals to document their transition into adulthood. During these sessions, the artist directed the subjects and asked questions intended to capture their thoughts on their physical and psychological development. Although the project was completed and edited into a 45-minute documentary in 1981, Rivers noted at the time that the project was met with significant concern from those close to the family, including the daughters themselves. The 1981 Exhibition and Suppression growing 1981 larry rivers

The project remains a significant point of discussion regarding the responsibilities of artists toward their subjects and the legal protections afforded to children in the context of private and professional filming. Portrait of the Artist as Creep - Glasstire

Growing is a mixed-media work on canvas, typical of Rivers’ method of combining oil paint, charcoal, and sometimes collage elements. At first glance, the composition is dominated by organic, phallic-like vertical forms that rise from a dark, undulating earth. These forms—reminiscent of stalks, fungi, or even unrolled scrolls of paper—are rendered in muted greens, ochres, and fleshy pinks. The brushwork is loose and gestural, a clear debt to his Abstract Expressionist training under Hans Hofmann. However, unlike a purely abstract painting, Growing contains fractured figurative elements: a disembodied hand reaching upward, a suggestion of a facial profile near the lower right quadrant, and what appears to be a window or frame within the canvas. : The film focuses on the daily lives

Larry Rivers was born on May 8, 1923, in New York City. He began his artistic journey as a jazz saxophonist, playing with notable musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. However, Rivers' true passion lay in visual art, and he eventually turned to painting, drawing inspiration from the likes of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.

In 1976, Larry Rivers began using a portable camera to chronicle his daughters' transition into adulthood. Over five years, he recorded bi-annual sessions focused on their physical growth and maturation. During these sessions, Rivers engaged his daughters in dialogue, asking them to describe their psychological and emotional responses to their changing bodies and their emerging identities. The 1981 Edit and Intended Exhibition Created during a period when he revisited narrative

The 1981 painting was inspired by a much more controversial project: a video series Rivers began in 1968. For over a decade, Rivers used a camera to document his two adolescent daughters, and Emma , as they grew. Every six months, he would film them nude, asking intimate questions about their developing bodies and their feelings on womanhood.

Rivers is asking a radical question: