In this series of thirteen mixed-media prints, Larry Rivers, one of the pioneers of Pop Art, reimagines the tragedy of the Boston Massacre. This event, marking the beginning of the American Revolution, occurred on March 5, 1770, when British Army soldiers fired their muskets into a crowd of civilians gathered on the streets of Boston, killing five colonists and galvanizing American sentiment for independence from Great Britain. Two hundred years later, Rivers revisits this moment in a series that disrupts traditional depictions of historical narrative through fragmentary visual references to the past that intermix with imagery from the political unrest of the 1960s. This exhibition presents the Boston Massacre portfolio from The Ringling’s permanent collection.

Image: Larry Rivers (American, 1923 – 2002), Black Revue from Boston Massacre series, 1970, mixed media screenprint on paper, 19 1/8 x 27 ¼ inches. Gift of Donald L. Thal, 1979, MF79.19.8

Support for this exhibition was provided by Gulf Coast Community Foundation