Growing 1981 Larry Rivers

Rivers rejected the digital future (the early 80s saw the rise of the PC and early digital art). He insisted on the hand. In Growing , the hand is shaky, insistent, and sometimes ugly. That ugliness is the truth.

: Emma Tamburlini has publicly characterized the footage as child pornography rather than a legitimate coming-of-age art film. Suppression and the NYU Archive Scandal

: Emma Rivers (later Emma Tamburlini) publicly condemned the work, describing the filming process as coercive and detailing the long-term psychological distress it caused. She sought the return and destruction of the footage to protect her privacy. The Ethical and Artistic Debate

The legal system offered no clear answers. A grand jury in San Diego had previously declined to prosecute Rivers for child pornography, with the decision baffling many observers. Legal experts pointed out that if a stranger had created such material, they would almost certainly be prosecuted. However, parental status created a complicated gray area, where the line between documentation and exploitation was difficult for courts to define. growing 1981 larry rivers

In the mid-1970s, Rivers, a pioneer in the newly accessible medium of video, set out to create a documentary unlike any other. He began a project that would last for several years, from roughly 1976 to 1981. His subjects were his own two daughters, Gwynne and Emma Rivers. The premise was simple on its surface: to document the process of puberty, specifically the development of their bodies. At six-month intervals, Rivers would film his daughters, who were approximately 11 years old when the filming began. The girls were filmed either fully naked or topless, while their father made comments and asked them pointed questions about the changes happening to their bodies, particularly their breasts. The resulting footage was eventually edited and titled Growing , completed in 1981.

: Upon reviewing the material, NYU officials expressed grave concerns. The university eventually declined to accept the specific tapes related to the daughters, citing ethical standards and the potential for legal complications.

Upon its completion and initial private screenings, reactions to "Growing" were not about its artistic merit but its apparent exploitation. Rivers was already famous for shocking behavior — he openly discussed his drug use with jazz legends like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis and was unapologetically bisexual in an era when that was not publicly accepted. But "Growing" seemed to cross a different, more primal line. Rivers rejected the digital future (the early 80s

: Rivers utilized a handheld video camera to capture intimate, unscripted moments, reflecting his interest in the "cinema verité" style of the era.

: Rivers aimed to document the biological transition from childhood to adulthood, framed through a lens of radical honesty and familial intimacy. Suppression and the 2010 Controversy

Aside from the completion of the "Growing" project, 1981 was a significant year for Rivers' established career: Bio - Larry Rivers Foundation That ugliness is the truth

Growing (1981) is emblematic of Larry Rivers’s late practice: intimate, referential, and formally resourceful. By layering autobiographical content, painterly bravura, and cultural signifiers, Rivers creates a compact meditation on development—personal, artistic, and cultural—affirming his place in the conversation between mid‑century innovation and late 20th‑century painting’s pluralism.

Conceived by the celebrated pioneer of Pop art as a documentary chronicling the physical development of his adolescent daughters, the 45-minute film has instead become a lightning rod for debates on child exploitation, artistic immunity, and familial trauma. Decades after its completion, the project continues to overshadow Rivers' artistic legacy.