Collection of the University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA. Acquired through the Ackerman Foundation.
1981.5.1
Enlisted Man and Officer
1981 (Date accessioned)
Screenprint
18.2 in W
x
18.125 in H
(Paper)
American
Enlisted Man and Officer is a screenprint from a series of 13 works entitled The Boston Massacre, produced in the Styria Studios in New York, and published by Marlborough Graphics.[1] The work features two men dressed in military garb in images that adopt the collage techniques and neon color synonymous with pop art. In the two rectangles that define these figures, the soldier on the left dons a traditional outfit worn by soldiers in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The blue long-tailed jacket, white leggings, and three-point hat identify him as a professional soldier in the Continental Army, rather than a local militia man. Wearing the uniform of an infantryman, he also holds a musket rather than a sword, and his bare sleeve and cuff suggest a lower rank. Rivers locates the soldier centrally on a bright pink ground. With its solid color background, the soldier’s stance and layered treatment produces the effect of depth and motion.
Unlike the first soldier, the right-hand panel depicts a high-ranking military officer posing for a standing portrait, with his hands in his pockets and his left leg crossed in front of his right. The pose of this figure is based on Jacques-Louis David’s 1812 portrait of the French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte[2] Rivers had previously appropriated the same pose for a work titled The Greatest Homosexual, a work that played with the feminine characteristics of David’s cross-legged pose to recast Napoleon as a refined dandy rather than a feared military commander. In this rendition, Rivers has cropped Napoleon’s head and removed the color from his uniform, except for the off-white of his vest and fitted trousers.
Napoleon’s tonal cutout appears on a vivid blue background, framed by a thick neon border. Rivers also uses color to accent certain areas of the soldier’s uniform, like the sleeves and coat-tail. The attention-grabbing effects of Rivers’ color is typical of the interest of many pop artists in the commercial techniques of advertising billboards. Less typical of the pop movement that he helped develop is Rivers's use of his techniques to present a provocative reinterpretation of historical artworks. As a curator at the Guggenheim Museum has described, Rivers's “engagement with historical pieces connected contemporary art with art history.”[3]
Born in 1923 to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, Larry Rivers grew up in the Bronx, New York. Rivers’s career spans many disciplines and media types, including music, poetry, printmaking, sculpture, and painting. After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army for medical reasons, he attended the Julliard School of Music for a year and studied musical theory and composition. Rivers’s first formal training came at Hans Hoffman’s painting school, where Hoffman often steered away from the popular conventions of abstraction that were fashionable at the tim.[4] Throughout his career, Rivers collaborated with several other artists, poets, and musicians, including his most intimate partnership with poet and curator Frank O’Hara.[5] Rivers provided important foundations for the development of pop art, and Andy Warhol has indicated that he was a key influence on his practice.
Rivers’s art testifies to his flamboyant personality and deep sexual curiosity. Married twice and the father of multiple children, Rivers talks freely in his biography about his sexual explorations with both men and women.[6] Several of his paintings show an eroticized handling of the male nude.[7] His curiosity did not stop there. One of Rivers’s most controversial works is a double portrait of his mother-in-law posing nude in front of a couch.[8] Although Enlisted Man and Officer does not include sexualized content of this kind, its juxtaposition of high and low status with active and passive images of masculinity confirms the intersections of class and sexuality so central to Rivers's art, and to pop art more broadly.
[1] This print has previously been mistitled in the UAG catalogue as Soliders and Napolean (sic).
[2] Jacques Louis-David, Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuilleries, 1812 is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. See https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46114.html
[3] See Guggenheim Museum, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/larry-rivers. Rivers’ most famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware is one of many other works derived from historical scenes.
[4] Larry Rivers Foundation, www.larryriversfoundation.org/bio.html.
[5] Koh, Dong-Yeon, "Larry Rivers and Frank O'Hara: Reframing Male Sexualities" (2006). CUNY Academic Works. See https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1659
[6] Rivers, Larry, and Arnold Weinstein. “What did I do?: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Larry Rivers, with Arnold Weinstein”. New York: Aaron Asher Books, 1992.
[7] Larry Rivers, O’Hara Nude with Boots, 1954, Oil on canvas, 97 x 53 in, Collection of the Artist, Bridgehampton, NY.
[8] Larry Rivers, Double Portrait of Berdie, 1955, Oil, fabricated chalk, and charcoal on linen, 71.5 x 82.5 in, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Author: Grant Underwood - Spring 2018
Unlike the first soldier, the right-hand panel depicts a high-ranking military officer posing for a standing portrait, with his hands in his pockets and his left leg crossed in front of his right. The pose of this figure is based on Jacques-Louis David’s 1812 portrait of the French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte[2] Rivers had previously appropriated the same pose for a work titled The Greatest Homosexual, a work that played with the feminine characteristics of David’s cross-legged pose to recast Napoleon as a refined dandy rather than a feared military commander. In this rendition, Rivers has cropped Napoleon’s head and removed the color from his uniform, except for the off-white of his vest and fitted trousers.
Napoleon’s tonal cutout appears on a vivid blue background, framed by a thick neon border. Rivers also uses color to accent certain areas of the soldier’s uniform, like the sleeves and coat-tail. The attention-grabbing effects of Rivers’ color is typical of the interest of many pop artists in the commercial techniques of advertising billboards. Less typical of the pop movement that he helped develop is Rivers's use of his techniques to present a provocative reinterpretation of historical artworks. As a curator at the Guggenheim Museum has described, Rivers's “engagement with historical pieces connected contemporary art with art history.”[3]
Born in 1923 to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants, Larry Rivers grew up in the Bronx, New York. Rivers’s career spans many disciplines and media types, including music, poetry, printmaking, sculpture, and painting. After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army for medical reasons, he attended the Julliard School of Music for a year and studied musical theory and composition. Rivers’s first formal training came at Hans Hoffman’s painting school, where Hoffman often steered away from the popular conventions of abstraction that were fashionable at the tim.[4] Throughout his career, Rivers collaborated with several other artists, poets, and musicians, including his most intimate partnership with poet and curator Frank O’Hara.[5] Rivers provided important foundations for the development of pop art, and Andy Warhol has indicated that he was a key influence on his practice.
Rivers’s art testifies to his flamboyant personality and deep sexual curiosity. Married twice and the father of multiple children, Rivers talks freely in his biography about his sexual explorations with both men and women.[6] Several of his paintings show an eroticized handling of the male nude.[7] His curiosity did not stop there. One of Rivers’s most controversial works is a double portrait of his mother-in-law posing nude in front of a couch.[8] Although Enlisted Man and Officer does not include sexualized content of this kind, its juxtaposition of high and low status with active and passive images of masculinity confirms the intersections of class and sexuality so central to Rivers's art, and to pop art more broadly.
[1] This print has previously been mistitled in the UAG catalogue as Soliders and Napolean (sic).
[2] Jacques Louis-David, Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuilleries, 1812 is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. See https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46114.html
[3] See Guggenheim Museum, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/larry-rivers. Rivers’ most famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware is one of many other works derived from historical scenes.
[4] Larry Rivers Foundation, www.larryriversfoundation.org/bio.html.
[5] Koh, Dong-Yeon, "Larry Rivers and Frank O'Hara: Reframing Male Sexualities" (2006). CUNY Academic Works. See https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1659
[6] Rivers, Larry, and Arnold Weinstein. “What did I do?: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Larry Rivers, with Arnold Weinstein”. New York: Aaron Asher Books, 1992.
[7] Larry Rivers, O’Hara Nude with Boots, 1954, Oil on canvas, 97 x 53 in, Collection of the Artist, Bridgehampton, NY.
[8] Larry Rivers, Double Portrait of Berdie, 1955, Oil, fabricated chalk, and charcoal on linen, 71.5 x 82.5 in, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Author: Grant Underwood - Spring 2018
Larry Rivers (1923-2002)
Enlisted Man and Officer, 1970
Screenprint
1981.5.1
Gift of Robert Brooks via the Ackerman Foundation
In Collection
Gift of Robert Brooks via the Ackerman Foundation (1981)
This is not Ideal: Gender Myths and their Transformation. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh University Art Gallery. 2018. Exhibition catalogue.
Published on the occasion of the student-curated exhibition This is not Ideal: Gender Myths and Their Transformation at the University Art Gallery, University of Pittsburgh, October 26-December 7, 2018.
University Art Gallery. Frick Fine Arts Building, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
ISBN: 978-1-7329013-0-8
Published on the occasion of the student-curated exhibition This is not Ideal: Gender Myths and Their Transformation at the University Art Gallery, University of Pittsburgh, October 26-December 7, 2018.
University Art Gallery. Frick Fine Arts Building, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260
ISBN: 978-1-7329013-0-8
Please note that cataloging is ongoing and that some information may not be complete.