Lurie’s Lyrics

Boris Lurie (1924 – 2008) was a visual artist and concentration camp survivor, founder of the NO!art movement and a New Yorker from Riga. He was also an author: his book Geschriebigtes, Gedichtigtes melds unembellished narrative, poetry and a wicked levity as few other works dealing with survival during and after the Holocaust have done. “I acquired the basics of my artistic education in concentration camps like Buchenwald,” wrote Lurie. He created collages that combined images of mountains of corpses with pin-up photos and attacked fascism, racism and the sexism of consumer society. Raw narratives, unbridled eloquence and playful poetry infused with music.

“Lurie’s Lyrics” is an experimental theatre production that brings Lurie’s writings to life. The evening is a tribute to a great non-conformist who, according to Volkhard Knigge from the Buchenwald Memorial, aimed to create “outcry and confrontation” rather than superficial meaning.

Portrait Boris Lurie: Naomi Tereza Salmon

Photo: Judith Buss

Bories Lurie and Rudolf Herz at the exhibition “Mirroring Evil” at the Jewish Museum New York 2002

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