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mr. rivers had come to art almost by accident. as a young saxophonist in a band playing the resort circuit in maine in 1945, he was shown a book about modern art one day by the band's pianist, jack freilicher.walking up avenue b after twenty minutes with the economist and the stairmaster at the gym, there's a young woman walking her dog. she's got brown hair in a bun and glasses and a t-shirt with STUPID PEOPLE shouldn't BREED handwritten on the back."i wanted to say, 'what's cubism?'" mr. rivers recalled in his autobiography, "what did i do?" "but suddenly i knew what cubism was. cubism told a young man from the bronx he didn't know very much. cubism didn't know about him or his nights walking all over greenwich village with his big horn slung over his shoulder looking for a joint where he could sit and blow with a lot of other desperados. cubism certainly didn't smoke pot or get high, cubism was history in which he played no part. where could i catch up?"
- michael kimmelman, "larry rivers, who shook up american art, is dead at 78," the new york times 15/08/2002