Dan's Papers - September 12, 2008

Last week's "Art Commentary" reinforced the idea of family in the Democratic National Convention's visual and verbal rhetoric. Oddly enough, family again predominates in the art and life of Larry Rivers, the subject of Guild Hall's current exhibit.

First, the paintings themselves, expertly curated by Christina Strassfield. It's hard to miss the fact that Rivers' mother-in-law, Berdie, played a major role in his work, expecially "Double Berdie," a particularly provocative piece that provides a potent taste of ambiguity. At first glance, the two figures seem like a gender-bender mirror image, the left-hand subject appearing to be a male, the female (Berdie) taking up the right-hand side. We look again. More likely, the painting is simply two views of the same female.

Whatever the interpretation, distortion exists; it is also represented in his work of his wife, Agusta, where one eye is blurred. Again, it's not apparent until the viewer looks a second time. Is it a coincidence that such malformations are reserved for the artist's family members?

Rivers' works featuring Frank O'Hara and Jack Kerouac are relevant as well, not for their distortions (even with O'Hara appearing nude and wearing boots) but for their homage to Rivers' extended family.

The short film, Pull My Daisy, with Rivers, Kerouac as narrator, and Alan Ginsberg, is another potent example of this extended family. Directed by Robert Frank, himself a well-known photographer of the American scene, the movie soars with in-jokes and cultural comments on the beatnik era at the end of the 1950s. (Pull My Daisy is an important avant-garde film as well, marking the end of the experimental cinema tradition during the 1940s and 1950s.)

Rivers plays Milo, a working class husband and father apparently more devoted to his friends than to his family. He is clearly not a man to be admired: his commitment to his extended "family" of beatniks reeks of self-indulgence and self-absorption. One wonders if any of these attributes apply to the real-life Rivers.

Yet we somehow feel sorry for this group of artists who will probably never realize their dreams, remaining stuck in their closed world.

Cinematically speaking, the film has many virtues, including a clear contrast between its bleak, dark, gritty documentary feel and the lofty, stylized words of Kerouac who wrote the narration. One also wonders if some of the dialogue was improvised, especally when the friends are talking about Buddhism.

We do know for certain, however, that Rivers' wasn't faking when he played the saxophone.

"Larry Rivers: Major Early Works" will be on view at Guild Hall until Oct. 19.

CRITIC'S CHOICE: "The Boys of Summer" at the Fireplace Project until September 30. Call 631-324-4666 for information.