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Buick Painting with P
oil on canvas, 1960
47 7/8 x 60 1/8 inches
Bequest of Mary Mallery Davis, by exchange, and partial gift of The Bishop Trust, 2002.3

artist info

Although Larry Rivers is usually identified as one of the innovators of Pop Art along with Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Rivers' reworking of historical paintings and interest in traditional rendering set him apart from other Pop Artists in terms of style. And while it also diverged from the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1950s, Rivers' art fuses the gestural painterliness of that style with traditional, realistic old master techniques.

Buick Painting with P is a beautiful example of Rivers's synthesis of gestural abstraction, imagery from popular culture, and aspects of realism. Three painterly horizontal strokes describe the body of the car. Another orange stroke in the center of the picture becomes the license plate, and two red circles the taillights. In 1960, the year the painting was executed, the Buick was in many ways symbolic of American life and lifestyle, and it is telling that Rivers chose to make the three horizontal bands of red, white, and blue. This simple artistic choice takes the shape beyond an automobile to something both emblematic and American.

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