Larry Rivers was born Irving Grossberg and spent most of his life in New York City. He has been a key figure in New York' s art world ever since he presented his first solo show in 1949. He began his career as a jazz musician and at the suggestion of a friend began to paint under the tutelage of the noted Abstract Expressionist painter and teacher, Hans Hoffman. He enjoyed huge success and his works are exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and in most important museum collections world-wide. Shortly before his death the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington mounted a major retrospective of his work. His bizarre and unconventional life story is well told in his autobiography written with Arnold Weinstein What did I do ?