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What Did I Do?: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Larry Rivers
What Did I Do? is the testimony of one of America's finest artists and includes memorable perceptions [and gossip] of friends, lovers, rivals, and the jazz and art worlds: Frank O'Hara, Terry Southern, Leo Castelli, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Clement Greenberg, Tibor de Nagy, Jackson Pollock, Delmore Schwartz, Rudy Burckhardt, Hans Hofmann, W.H. Auden, Mil
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Paperback
,
512 pages
Published
June 12th 2001
by Da Capo Press
(first published 1992)
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Community Reviews
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A romping disclosure of the wild and rapacious life of painter and jazz musician named Larry Rivers. No secrets kept, Rivers seemed incapable of knowing where all the lines of society were drawn. That he survived to tell us about it is a remarkable feat. That he told us about it with such flair and honesty is a stroke of genius.
My goodness, Larry Rivers is complex! He paints a portrait of himself as immensely likable - his humility over his gifts as a painter is really inspiring, for example, as his admission that he's never made a woman cum suggest honesty is his policy. And yet, he simultaneously manages to make himself seem like one of the most grotesque people you'd never want to meet, replete as this book is with weird defenses of misogyny and intimations that paedophilia is maybe not such a bad thing. Driving the
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a fantastic autobiography detailing the art, music, homelife, not-so-straight-life, and philosophies of larry rivers. wonderful stories of ohara and gang in nyc from pre- wwII till 1980's. really, this could have been twice as long, his story telling and antics are that good. i rank this one of the better chronicles of art/music/drugs/literature/revolutions of the 20th cent usa/uk/paris ; to go alongside pepper's
Straight Life
n coyote's tales
Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle
Jun 10, 2008
Amy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those interested in the artistic process or mid-century art & culture
Recommended to Amy by:
Dunnaway Books
Shelves:
artist-s-auto-biographies
,
own
This book is pretty awesome. I'm sort of into autobiographies of 20th century artist's right now, and I like this one because it reads as ridiculously candid, and he actually writes about making pictures along with everything else. Interesting perspective on the jazz scene in New York as well, and a fairly realistic take on the "bohemian" and "promiscuous" stereotypes of artists. Interesting anecdotes on the critics, art writers, gallery owners, and other artists of the time too.
what didn't Larry do? Entertaining and enlightening as Larry evolves and yet stays the same. Kind of a jerk, very lovable and infectious in his enthusiasm for life in general and sex, friends and art in particular.
started off well, but then it bored me in the middle and I couldn't finish. maybe it was me?...
Larry Rivers is a wild man!! Great stuff,recommend this to other artists
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