Boris Lurie American, 1924-2008

Biography
Artist Boris Lurie stands for a portrait in his studio
Boris Lurie in his studio, 1957; Boris Lurie Art Foundation, New York. Photo by Betty Holiday.

Boris Lurie was born 1924 in Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg), 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.

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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.

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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.

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He died in 2008 in New York. Boris is buried in Hof Hacarmel cemetery in Haifa, Israel.

Artworks
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  • Mixed media artwork collage from newspaper, magazine cutouts, vintage pin up images, and the word NO multiple times
    Big NO Painting, 1963
  • Mixed media collage of vintage pin up images, covered halfway diagonally with black paint overlaid with the word “NO” in orange
    NO with Pinups and Shadow (Large NO Painting), 1958
  • Mixed media artwork collage from newspaper cutouts and vintage pinup images on a brown background
    Torn Pinups, 1962-1963
  • Mixed media collage of vintage pin up images, blue background
    Untitled (Torn Pinups), circa 1962
  • Paper collage of vintage pin up images and images of children and family on a black background
    Untitled (Suzy Sweet), 1963
  • Mixed media collage with central vintage pin up image on a green and red background
    Untitled (Deliberate Pinup), circa 1975
  • Paper collage with sand over a photograph of a woman in black fetish clothing holding a flogger, white background
    Untitled (Deliberate pinup series), circa 1975
  • Paper collage of vintage pin up images on a white background, with text “PISS” in red overlaid
    PISS, circa 1973
  • Mixed media collage with vintage pin up image next to a black square with text “IN” in red
    IN, circa 1973
  • Mixed media collage of blue and green material with the words 'NO' and and 'SOLD OUT' overlaid
    NO Poster, 1963
  • Mixed media collage with faces and the word “NO” multiple times on a blue, white, red background
    NO poster Overpainted, 1963
  • Installation view from the side of three tridimensional paintings of interconnected trapezoidal shapes in vivid colors with a black tridimensional painting in the background
    NO Posters Mounted, 1963
  • Painting of a distorted pink figure on a red background with the word “NO” in black, green, orange multiple times
    Relief: Stripper with NOs, 1958-62
  • The word NO in orange, white, and blue paint on a black background
    NO on Plastic, 1966-69
  • Vinyl record painted orange with the word NO in black mounted on board
    NO Record, 1962
  • The word NO in red paint on a black, orange background
    Feeling Painting NO with Red and Black, 1963
  • Collage of the word NO from corrugated cardboard over a light gray background
    NO Stencil, 1963
  • Stylized image of the legs of a woman wearing platform shoes with high heels, on green background
    Dismembered Woman, circa 1955
  • Stylized, distorted nude on green background, looks like Venus of Willendorf
    Dismembered Woman: Nude, Stepping, circa 1955
  • Stylized image of a sitting nude woman wearing a hat and high heels, on green background
    Dismembered Woman: The Stripper, 1955
  • Painting on canvas of a stylized nude woman, faceless, painted in white, grays, black
    Altered Photos: Pinup (Dismembered figure), circa 1963
  • Black and white mixed media collage and oil painting of three abstracted women in front of a geometric background
    Untitled (Three Women #1), 1958-59
  • Painting in black oil paint on unprimed canvas of three standing women
    Untitled (Three Women), 1957
  • Burlap bag with pin up images in paper collage, a yellow Star of David, and the text “BORIS LURIE/NO ART BAG” in red and black oil paint
    NO!art Bag, 1974
  • Framed mixed media collage of 1960s pinup images and newspaper cutouts, with off-white was superimposed
    Untitled, 1958
  • Framed mixed media collage of 1960s pinup images and newspaper cutouts, with off-white was superimposed
    Untitled, 1956
  • Pinup collage on white background with the word NO in black paint brushstrokes
    NO on Reversed Pinups, 1971-72
  • Framed watercolor work on paper of the busts of two omen on a yellow / ochre background
    Untitled, 1950
Exhibitions
Bibliography
Artist Boris Lurie stands for a portrait in his studio
Boris Lurie in his studio, 1957; Boris Lurie Art Foundation, New York. Photo by Betty Holiday.

2021 - Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try, Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York, NY

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

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