BORIS LURIE
(1924-2008)
ARTWORK
Westwood Gallery NYC presented the premiere U.S. exhibition for Boris Lurie after his death.
THE NO!ART MOVEMENT
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.
© 2021 Boris Lurie Art Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
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.
© 2021 Boris Lurie Art Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
DISMEMBERED WOMEN
The female figures that populate his work, from the Dismembered Women Series (1955-57), through the Dancehall (1955), Black Figures (1957-58) and Three Women (1955-57) Series, to the Love (1963) and Pin-ups (1960-1964) Series must be understood through the matrix of the imponderable pain the loss of those dearest to him would inflict. The futile longing for their simple presence by his side, the desperate imaginings of what might have been -- for them far more so than for himself -- had the world not fallen into the clutches of evil, and the constant recognition that violence and inhumanity are equally a danger inherent in the everyday relations of the strong to the weak, the rich to the poor, and male to female, would inform his art even as he matured into the uncompromising radical his later work reveals. Because Lurie’s passion, or rather, compassion for the subject is so multifarious, his fundamental and overwhelming sympathy for women is sometimes misunderstood, especially in the later work, as unwholesome sexual obsession. The mirror he holds up to society is sometimes mistaken for the un-self-conscious mirror of his soul; his own, evidently vigorous, sexuality, forever colored, and indeed perhaps somehow stunted, by the camp experience, is rendered suspect by the insistent proximity of violence and death. His Dismembered Women, Pin-Ups, and Love Series, among others, at once assert that the objectification of women is violence against women and that female sexuality is a fundamental and ineradicable force, ideas difficult at best to incorporate in a single work.
© 2021 Boris Lurie Art Foundation, All Rights Reserved.
BIOGRAPHY
Boris Lurie was born 1924 in Leningrad, Russia, and grew up in Riga, Latvia. At the age of sixteen he was taken prisoner by the Nazis and imprisoned for a period of four years at Buchenwald and other concentration camps. After his liberation Lurie remained in Germany for a year and worked for the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. He moved to New York City in 1946 and began his art career there. From 1954 to 1955 he lived and worked in Paris.
Boris Lurie first gained national attention in 1960. During this year he, along with Sam Goodman and Stanley Fisher, created the NO!art movement. The principle aim of NO!art was to bring back into art the subjects of real life. It thus stood in opposition to the two most popular movements of the era, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.
For the most part critics and curators of the day rejected Lurie and NO!art. As he has stated, “The art market is nothing but a racket. There is an established pyramid which everybody who wants to benefit from it has to participate—if he is permitted to participate.” Yet Lurie continued to produce his highly charged political and social imagery and, in 1963, his now famous collage, Railroad Collage—which superimposed a pin-up girl in front of victims of a concentration camp—caused a major furor.
He died in 2008 in New York. Boris is buried in Hof Hacarmel cemetery in Haifa, Israel.
EXHIBITIONS
2017, JAN 3 - FEB 18
WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC
EXHIBITION HISTORY
2021 - Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try, Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
2021 - Downtown Train, PS122 Gallery, New York, Sep 9 - Oct 3
2021 - Stop Painting, Prada Foundation, Venice, May 22 - Nov 21
2021 - Boris Lurie, Das Haus von Anita, Center for Persecuted Arts, Solingen, Germany, May 8 - Aug 1
2021 - Boris Lurie: In Riga, Žanis Lipke Memorial, Riga Latvia, Mar 4, 2021 - Jul 31
2020 - Boris Lurie in America: He had the courage to say NO!, The Center for Contemporary Political Art, Washington, DC, Jan 26 - Apr 26
2019 - Shit and Doom - NO!art, Cell Project Space, London, Sep 19 - Nov 3
2019 - Altered Man - The Art of Boris Lurie, Kyiv National Art Gallery, Shokoladnyi Budynok Art Center, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sep 6 - Oct 30; traveled to Odesa Fine Arts Museum, Odessa, Ukraine, Nov 15, 2019 - Jan 15, 2020
2019 - Portable Landscapes: Memories and Imaginaries of Refugee Modernism, The James Gallery, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, Nov 19, 2019 - Feb 15, 2020
2019 - It is the Sunlight That Warms the Room (Es el sol que calienta la habitación), Museo Vostell Malpartida, Cáceres, Spain, Sep 1, 2019 - Mar 31, 2020
2019 - Boris Lurie. American Nonconformist, The State Russian Museum / The Stroganov Palace, St Petersburg, Russia, Aug 29 - Nov 11
2019 - Confrontation NO!art Group, Janco-Dada Museum, Ein Hod, Israel, Jul 20 - Nov 30
2019 - Boris Lurie: Artist and Witness, Mark Rothko Art Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia, Apr 26 - Jun 23
2019 - Boris Lurie and NO!art Group, Koroška Art Gallery, Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia, Apr 5 - Jun 2
2019 - Forgetting - Why We Don't Remember Everything, Historisches Museum Frankfurt, Germany, Mar 6 - Jul 14
2019 - NO!art Exhibition, The Riga Bourse (Latvian National Museum Of Art), Rīga, Latvia, Jan 11 - Mar 10
2018 - Boris Lurie: Pop-art After the Holocaust – MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art In Krakow, Poland
2018 - Flashes of the Future: The Art of the ’68ers or The Power of the Powerless Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kuns, Aachen, Germany
2017 - You’ve Got 1243 Unread Messages. – Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, Latvia
2017 - Boris Lurie in Habana – Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba
2017 - Boris Lurie. Anti-Pop - Neues Museum Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design Nürnberg, Germany
2017 - Boris Lurie: Life After Death, Westwood Gallery NYC, Jan-Feb
2017 - Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952–1965 – Grey Art Gallery, NYU, New York NY
2016 - Boris Lurie. Adieu Amérique – CAMERA - Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Torino, Italy
2016 - BORIS LURIE NO! – Janco Dada Museum, Ein Hod, Israel
2016 - No Compromises! The Art of Boris Lurie – Jewish Museum Berlin
2015 - Unorthodox – Jewish Museum, New York NY
2015 - Boris Lurie NO!art – Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Paris, France
2014 - KZ – KAMPF – KUNST. Boris Lurie: NO!art NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln, Germany
2014 - Dessinez Eros (Group Exhibition) Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Paris, France
2014 - El Museo Vostell Malpartida, Spain.
2014 - The Box LA, Stand A14, Frieze Art Fair – New York. NYTimes.com mentio
2013 - Boris Lurie, 1924–2008 – Charles Krause/ Reporting Fine Art, (e)merge art fair – Washington, DC
2013 - Art Against Art: Yesterday and Today – Zverev Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow
2013 - Boris Lurie, The 1940s, Paintings and Drawings – Studio House, New York NY
2013 - NO!art: The Three Prophets – The BOX, Los Angeles, CA
2012 - A Self To Recover: Embodying Sylvia Plath's Ariel – Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN
2012 - Boris Lurie – David David Gallery
2012 - Boris Lurie: NO!art of the 1960s – Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights, Firenze, Italia
2011 - NO!art at the Barricades – Chelsea Art Museum, NYC
2011 - NO!art of Boris Lurie – Zverev Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia
2011 - NO! The Art of Boris Lurie at Chelsea Art Museum – Chelsea Art Museum, NYC
2011 - Atonement (Oratorio composed by Marvin David Levy dedicated to Boris Lurie and Holocaust victims), Temple Emanu-El
2011 - BORIS LURIE: NO!art – Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge, MA
2011 - Los Angeles Art Fair, Westwood Gallery Booth
2010 - Art|Miami, Westwood Gallery Booth
2010 - NO!art | An Exhibition of Early Work, Westwood Gallery, New York
2009 - On the Tectonics of History, ISCP, New York
2009 - ART FAIR 2009 – New York – Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge
2005 - The '80s, Clayton Gallery & Outlaw Art Museum, New York
2005 - Wild Boys, Dad Boys, Outsiders, and Originals | Clayton Gallery, New York
2004 - Feel Paintings / NO!art show #4, Janos Gat Gallery, New York
2003 - Optimistic – Disease – Facility, Boris Lurie – Buchenwald–New York, with Naomi T. Salmon at Haus am 2003 - Kleistpark, Berlin-Schoeneberg
2003 - NO!-ON – Gallery Berliner Kunstprojekt, Berlin
2002 - NO!art and the Aesthetics of Doom, Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
2001 - NO!art and the Aesthetics of Doom, Block Museum, Evanston, IL
1999 - Works 1946-1998, Weimar-Buchenwald Memorial, Weimar
1999 - Life - Terror - Mind, Show at Buchenwald Memorial, Weimar
1999 - Knives in Cement, South River Gallery (UIMA), Iowa City
1998 - NO!art Show #3 with Dietmar Kirves, Clayton Patterson & Wolf Vostell – Janos Gat Gallery, New York
1995 - NO!art, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin
1995 - Boris Lurie und NO!art, Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin
1995 - Dance Hall Series, endart Gallery, Berlin
1995 - Holocaust In Latvia, Jewish Culture House, Riga
1994 - NO!art (with Isser Aronovici & Aldo Tambellini), Clayton Gallery, New York
1993 - Outlaw Art Show, Clayton Gallery, New York
1989 - Graffiti-Art – Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden
1988 - Feel-Paintings, Gallery and Edition Hundertmark, Cologne
1978 - Counterculturale Art (with Erro and Jean-Jacques Lebel), American Information Service, Paris
1975 - Recycling Exhibition, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1974 - Boris Lurie at Inge Baecker, Inge Baecker Galerie, Bochum, Germany
1974 - NO!art Bags, Galerie und Edition Hundertmark, Köln
1974 - Boris Lurie & Wolf Vostell, Galerie Rewelsky, Köln
1974 - NO!art with Sam Goodman & Marcel Janco, Ein-Hod-Museum, Ein-Hod, Israel
1973 - NO!art Painting Seit 1959, Galerie Ren é Block, Berlin; Galleria Giancarlo Bocchi, Milano
1970 - Art & Politics, Kunstverein Karlsruhe
1964 - NO & ANTI-POP Poster Show, Gallery Gertrude Stein, New York
1964 - Boxes, Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles
1963 - NO!show, Gallery Gertrude Stein, New York
1963 - Boris Lurie at Gallery Gertrude Stein, Gallery Gertrude Stein, New York
1962 - Sam Goodman & Boris Lurie, Galleria Arturo Schwarz, Milano
1962 - Doom Show, Galleria La Salita, Roma
1961 - Pinup Multiplications, D’Arcy Galleries, New York
1961 - Involvement Show, March Gallery, New York
1961 - Doom Show, March Gallery, New York
1960 - Dance Hall Series, D’Arcy Galleries, New York
1960 - Adieu Amerique, Roland de Aenlle Gallery, New York
1960 - Les Lions, March Gallery, New York
1960 - Tenth Street New York Cooperative, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1960 - Vulgar Show, March Gallery, New York; Joe Marino’s Atelier, New York
1960 - Joe Marino's Atelier, New York
1959 - Drawings USA, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1959 - 10th Street, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
1958 - Black Figures, March Gallery, New York
1951 - Dismembered Figures, Barbizon Plaza Galleries, New York
1950 - Boris Lurie, Creative Gallery, New York