HUNTER, SAM — Larry Rivers

NY: Rizzoli, 1989. 0847810941. Stated First Edition. First Printing. Hard Cover. ISBN: 0847810941. Illustrated by Larry Rivers. Publisher's full cream cloth boards, brown lettering on spine. Profusely illustrated with 400 illustrations, including 155 plates in full-color, most full-page and many double-page. "Rivers's public persona as an artist combines that of bohemian outsider, sensualist and entertainer. His best-known images of the 1960s -- Dutch Masters cigars, French money, cigarette packs -- became Pop icons. Eschewing abstraction, he came up with startling, disquieting figures, such as his obese, sagging mother-in-law depicted in the nude with brutal honesty ( Double Portrait of Berdie ). Yet there is more to Rivers than the hipster, as this lavishly illustrated monograph by a former Princeton art historian shows. Hunter makes a case for Rivers as a social realist: witness his powerful construction piece Ghetto Stoop or recent works that include searching portraits of Primo Levi, Leonard Bernstein and New York's ex-mayor Ed Koch. In History of Matzoh , a collage-like chronicle of the Jewish people, Rivers (born Yizroch Grossberg in 1923 in the Bronx) explores his Jewish roots. His latest series of 3-D paintings encompasses dancers, movie stars, Chinese and surrealist motifs.".. Both the volume and the unclipped dust jacket are in perfect, pristine condition; unread, unmarked, tight, square, and clean. A large, heavy book (six pounds) - additional shipping charges may apply. AS NEW/AS NEW.. Color Plates. 4to 11" - 13" tall. 358 pp. As New in As New dust jacket .