MEntertainment

enaissance

ON THE JNE COVER:
A relief painting by Larry Rivers titled "Dancing with
Bomberg's Dancer: Fred in the Air," oil on canvas on sculpted
foam core, 1990.

New York's
Larry Rivers
exhibits his artistic
and musical
talents in
Birmingham.

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to The Jewish News

rtist and musician Larry
Rivers fears boredom.
His New York loft home
includes studio and band-
stand space so he can move freely,
even impulsively, from one interest to
another — the pop or expressionist
art in demand by museums and gal-
leries and the jazz that is heard regu-
larly at popular clubs.
Rivers' upcoming trip to Michigan
has been planned to keep him from
that feared boredom: art enthusiasts
will get a look at some of his newer
projects, jazz fans an earful of his spe-
cial style and local artists a sense of
his taste for others' works.
Rivers opens a show of his own
projects — "The Master's Eye" — at
Birmingham's Robert Kidd Gallery
on March 5. Twenty-five works
selected by gallery co-owner Ray
Fleming will include new paintings
and drawings to be shown through
April 18.
The senior artist will jury the 17th
annual Michigan Fine Arts
Competition and
Rivers' "Thai
then present his own
Dancen"
Climax Jazz Band
pencil and
for supporters of the
colored pencil
Birmingham
on paper, 1995. Bloomfield Art
Association (BBAA)
on March 6. The selected competi-
tion works will be on display at the
BBAA through March 27.
"I'm trying to be more honest and
less worried about what I choose to
paint," said Rivers, 74, whose artistry
takes both humorous and serious
turns and can he found in New York's
Museum of Modern Art, the Jewish
Museum and other prestigious cen-
ters in and out of the city.
"If something interests me, I don't
worry about whether [somebody else]
is going to think it's great. I just do
it," said Rivers, "and [hopefully]
bring people to it by my continued
interest."
Rivers, who has put his hands to
all kinds of techniques including set
design, has a recent series embracing
the theme "Art and the Artist," fea-
turing sculpted relief portraits of
20th-century masters such as Picasso
and Matisse.
Another new series presents fash-
ion models with birds. The interplay

Suzanne Chessler is a Farmington
Hills-based freelance writer.

2/27
1998

104

C-/