BORIS LURIE
Boris Lurie (1924-2008) was the founder of the NO! ART movement. His artwork, stemming primarily from his disillusionment with the commercial art establishment as well as wartime and concentration camp memories, was exhibited by WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC. The exhibition, curated by James Cavello and accompanied by a catalogue, was the first exhaustive retrospective of this fascinating artist taking place after his death, and it included approximately 50 paintings, drawings, photo-montages and sculptures, some never exhibited before. Boris Lurie's heritage is preserved by the Boris Lurie Art Foundation.
NO!art, founded in 1960 by Lurie with Sam Goodman and Stanley Fisher, was primarily a strong reaction of the artists against the establishment. Its main intent was to address the less pleasant social realities, glossed over by the mainstream art, and to prompt for immediate action and social reform versus accepting the prevalent beautified version of reality. From such a platform, NO!art positioned itself directly in conflict with the glossy homage of consumerism celebrated by Pop art, and the already established high art, Abstract Expressionism, the two movements dominating the art scene at the time. As a result, the NO!art artists were largely ignored by the general public and the establishment, while gaining a cult following.
The theme choices often reference the historical context (sexual references hint to the mainstream repression at the time, as well as to the commercialization of sex, while the superimposition of war and extermination imagery stems from recent memories and from a need to shock in order to press for social reform). A NO!art artwork is definitely not a commodity or a decorative background, but more likely is meant to evoke wounds which are not healed, and which have been superficially hidden by the fabric of everyday life in 1960s US. In the same time, it represents a reaction against what the NO!art artists considered a fake, edulcorated version of events. The artworks incorporate photography, collage from newspapers and other sources, found objects and advertising banner words. One can see distorted female figures, obliterated faces, covered in scratches, words such as NO, AVOID, BLEED or SHARK BAIT. The surface of the artwork is not glossy, and the message is that another layer of disturbing imagery or information could exist in the social palimpsest, and it should be excavated. While the Dadaist and Surrealist filiation is evident, there is also a desperate need for authenticity and confronting life without attempting to hide its dark sides, and to prompt the public to accept the need for social reform and openness as a cure for alienation.
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Past Exhibitions
NO! ART: paintings, drawings, photomontages, sculptures
Art Wynwood 2013