Larry Poons was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1937 and grew up in New York City. He studied first at the New England Conservatory of Music from 1955 to 1957 before transferring to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1959. Poons' first solo exhibition was held in 1963 at Richard Bellamy's Green Gallery and in 1965, his work was included in the landmark exhibition, The Responsive Eye, at the Museum of Modern Art. A survey of Poons' paintings from the 1970s was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1981, and in the 1990s and early 2000s, several documentaries were produced to chronicle his life. Poons previously held teaching positions at Bennington College and Cooper Union and currently teaches at the Art Students League in New York. His work is included in the public collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others.
