Berdie with the American Flag
Artist
Larry Rivers
(American, 1923 - 2002)
Date1955
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 20 x 25 7/8 inches (50.8 x 65.72 cm)
Framed: 26 1/4 x 32 1/4 inches (66.68 x 81.92 cm)
Framed: 26 1/4 x 32 1/4 inches (66.68 x 81.92 cm)
Credit LineGift of William Inge
Object number57-120
Signedl.r.: "Rivers '57"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionUnfinished, thinly painted composition with flag over table, center foreground; yellow-orange tripartite seated half-length frontal figure upper center; cup and saucer on table, left; blue suit of armor, far left; yellow-flowered plant in drumlike pot, right.Gallery LabelLarry Rivers is considered a transitional figure between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art because he fuses expressive, gestural brushstrokes with images from popular culture.
In Berdie with the American Flag, Rivers combines immediately recognizable public imagery (the flag) with personal imagery (his mother-in-law). Bertha "Berdie" Burger is the model and central subject in 20 of his paintings. Here, she appears three times, sketchily rendered, emerging from the freely brushed color.
Copyright© Estate of Larry Rivers/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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