--- Documentary Growing 1981 Larry Rivers Link Download [updated] -
But Rivers was also a man who lived without brakes. He struggled with drug addiction and had an obsessive, complicated relationship with sex and the human body. This obsession led him to his most infamous project: a pseudo-documentary shot over nearly six years in the 1970s.
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Rivers gained notoriety in the 1950s for his iconoclastic approach to traditional imagery. His famous works, such as Washington Crossing the Delaware (1953), challenged the prevailing orthodoxy of Abstract Expressionism by reintroducing narrative and figurative elements, paving the very runway that Pop Art would later take off from. He was witty, rebellious, and deeply invested in documenting his immediate surroundings, which naturally led him to the medium of video tape in the late 1960s and 1970s. The 1981 Documentary: "Growing" --- Documentary Growing 1981 Larry Rivers LINK Download
The film "Growing" was a deeply personal and lengthy project for Rivers. Over a period of five to six years in the 1970s, he filmed his daughters, Emma and Gwynne, twice a year, often asking them questions about their changing bodies and sexuality. The footage included scenes where the girls were topless or completely nude. In 1981, after accumulating this significant archive, Rivers edited the raw footage into a 45-minute film he titled "Growing". He intended to use the film as part of a larger art exhibition, framing it as a serious artistic study of adolescence.
Gwynne's testimony was more measured but no less painful. She struggled with bulimia as a teenager and drank to excess into her early 20s. "I just made it go away," she said of the trauma. "Unsuccessfully". She acknowledged that her father knew he was making them uncomfortable: "Maybe every father has some feelings about his daughters turning into young women, and they know it's verboten, so they don't go near it. My father knew it was verboten, so he found a way to luxuriate in his fantasies without, he thought, putting both feet over the line". But Rivers was also a man who lived without brakes
The documentary is a highly controversial and largely unreleased film created by the American Pop artist Larry Rivers . Historical Context
The debate that ensued cut to the very core of artistic ethics: when does an artist's freedom of expression end, and when does it become an act of exploitation or harm? Supporters of Rivers framed "Growing" as a transgressive work of art, an honest and provocative exploration of a taboo subject that was in keeping with his lifelong mission to challenge societal norms. But for Emma, and for many others, the artistic framing is irrelevant in the face of the lived experience of the subjects involved. As she starkly put it, "Perhaps, instead of seeing me as a rose among thorns, my father saw me as another thorn". He was witty, rebellious, and deeply invested in
The official foundation dedicated to preserving the artist's legacy is the primary authority on where his filmed interviews and biographical documentaries can be legally accessed or licensed for viewing.
A search for "Larry Rivers Growing 1981" on torrent sites occasionally yields results, but caution is advised: given the film's content and legal status, downloading or sharing it may carry significant risks. The film is not available on mainstream streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu. Some academic libraries may have access to Rivers' archives, but viewing restrictions are stringent.
The project was filmed over several years to document the daughters' transition into adolescence.
