EXHIBITION:

A galvanizing “Yes,” to the creator of “NO!”

WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC is proud to present an expansive collection of the works of Boris Lurie (1924 - 2008). Pioneer of the NO! movement started in 1959, with fellow dissidents Sam Goodman and Stanley Fisher, Lurie’s stirring work has been jolting the art world awake for over a half century. This oeuvre of more than 60 paintings, collages and sculptures (curated by James Cavello), produced from the ‘50’s to 70’s, captures Lurie’s passion for rocking the establishment, forcing people to confront ugliness, and the rousing power of incongruous images. Boris Lurie’s work is also on view in Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952-1965 at the Grey Art Gallery, NYU through April 1, 2017. A collective of co-op galleries on 10th street were established in 1950’s to fulfill the need for artist-run galleries and Boris Lurie was a member of March Gallery.

Born in St. Petersburg, and after enduring what can only be described as the harshest extremities of the human experience (surviving four concentration camps, while his mother, sister and grandmother were slaughtered), Lurie immigrated to New York City in 1946. His early work hinted at German Expressionism, with dark hues and obfuscated, deformed figures of females, in particular. With politically inspired pieces, often featuring stark images from the Holocaust, Lurie was adamant about repudiating commercialism in art. A disdain for the popular movements of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art lead to an alliance with Goodman and Fisher, as they developed the NO! model, an eponymous rejection of the accepted. Internationally displayed, Lurie’s apt ability to work in a variety of mediums is a further testament to his unbridled craving to create and disseminate; a sprawling ken, unhampered by the need for “approval.”

WESTWOOD GALLERY NYC has a longstanding history with The Boris Lurie Art Foundation, having featured the first posthumous solo showing of Lurie’s work in 2008. Founded in 1995, the gallery has been a Nolita safe house for some of the world’s most culturally relevant and stimulating (new and rediscovered) artists.