Larry Rivers
Rivers started painting in 1945 after he saw a show of Cubist paintings. He studied painting with Hans Hoffman, who made abstract expressionist paintings. In 1949 he had his first art show, and he became friends with the poets John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch. The next year he met poet Frank O'Hara. They began to work together on art and poems. They wrote many letters to each other until O'Hara died in 1966.