The Art of

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124 possibility of a transcending interpretation and the later endowment of meaning, it becomes clear that Lurie strikes the very core of mass-cultural and mass-media memory with these works. One need only leaf through a postwar illustrated journal or a contemporary magazine: representations of suffering and cruelty are easily reconcilable with those of sex; in their own way, both avail themselves of marketing and voyeurism. Curiosity and horror after the Shoah, curiosity and horror on the part of those not directly affected, are probably very difficult to distinguish from one another. But one may become aware of their connection by addressing their simultaneity. And one can attempt to work against the dulling of horror due to its progression through history, through the unremitting series of horrific images. This is Lurie’s aim. But one probably also cuts him short if one understands works such as Railroad to America, 1963 | see image p. 23 or Saturation Painting (Buchenwald), 1959–64 | see image p. 22 exclusively as a critique of reception. We shall no doubt have to tolerate the culturally skeptical idea— and Lurie would not be the first to put it into words—that desire can be achieved through both Eros and violence. We will probably have to tolerate the idea that in his very personal, abrasive way, Lurie is also lending expression to a longing for love. The melodic rhythms of his collages, especially his very large-format ones, testify to this through all the horror and obscenity on their surface. And there are—often overlooked—groups of works visibly based on longing and tenderness, like the Ball Room Series, for example. In Lurie’s New York apartment, in which he lived as if in a dirty, poetic collage, he always hung a photograph of his massacred first love among all the clippings of horror and the marketed obscenities. In any case, outrage does not do justice to these works any more than their celebration as an anti-authoritarian liberation or as the explosion of superficial political correctness, for instance that of memorial culture. According to Lurie, the Star of David remains both a badge of honor and a weight around one’s neck, and “Jew Art” is the expression of a historical experience that—unsatisfied—can never be appeased. Ultimately, Boris Lurie’s oeuvre also testifies to the hopes he was forced to abandon in light of his own experience and the course of history after 1945: the hope that the experience of National Socialist crimes and World War II, the experience of the camps and the countless millions of dead, may be capable of leading directly to catharsis in society; the hope that the facts about the Holocaust that came to light during the Eichmann trial beginning in 1961—as well as the simultaneous threat of a possible nuclear apocalypse due to the Cuba crisis—would finally prompt a fundamental change in policy and social circumstances; the hope for a liberal left-wing, although its sympathies with the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian cause, to which Lurie, like others driven to the periphery, felt strong ties, VOLKHARD KNIGGE
125 often turned into anti-Semitism. In our last conversation he asked me to help him find a derelict but still usable palace or a castle, a NO!art castle close to the former concentration camp at Buchenwald. He wanted to set up a NO!art Foundation with the millions that he had actually made on the stock market but had never used for himself. The purpose of this foundation, his true magnum opus, would be to ensure independence for critical artists in the shadow of the camp and today’s memorial site, and to throw sand in the works of the production of political and social counter-humanity. The former moated castle in Denstedt, run down during its use as an agricultural production cooperative in the German Democratic Republic, would have been a possibility. But a sudden illness put an end to the project. “Art really exists, no kidding.”
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NO COMPROMISES 1 The Art of FAMILY
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FAMILY 3 Family, 1945-49 Oil on Mas
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FAMILY 5 Fragments Of Jewish Histor
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SATURATION PAINTINGS 7 Back From Wo
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SATURATION PAINTINGS 9 Untitled, 19
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NIGHT, STUTTHOF The day ends at six
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Entrance, 1940-55 Oil on board, 103
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WAR SERIES 15 War Series 85, 1946 P
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WAR SERIES 17 War Series 77, 1946 I
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WAR SERIES 19 War Series 98, 1946 C
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CAMPS 21
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CAMPS 23 Railroad to America, 1963
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Dismembered Woman: The Stripper, 19
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Dismembered Stripper, 1956 Oil on c
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DISMEMBERED WOMEN 29 Dismembered Wo
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DISMEMBERED WOMEN 31 Dismembered Wo
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33 I’m half Russian serf half kik
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DANCE HALL SERIES 35 Dance Hall Ser
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DANCE HALL SERIES 37 Untitled, 1955
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LOVE SERIES 39 Love Series, 1970-72
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LOVE SERIES 41 Love Series: Bound W
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ALTERED PORTRAITS 43 Altered Photos
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45 The Jew pays well for sauerkraut
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STAR OF DAVID 47 Untitled, 1960/61
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STAR OF DAVID 49 Suitcase, 1964 Ass
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STAR OF DAVID 51 Altered Israeli Fl
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STAR OF DAVID 53 Untitled, 1959-64
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Yellow Star NO!art Bag, 1960-69 Col
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PIN-UPS 57 Salad, 1962 Collage: Oil
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PIN-UPS 59 More Insurance, 1963 Col
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PIN-UPS 61 Untitled, 1961 Collage:
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PIN-UPS 63 Untitled, 1973-77 Collag
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PIN-UPS 65 Untitled, 1960-70 Collag
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PIN-UPS 67
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PIN-UPS 69 (Hand), 1962 Collage: Oi
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NO 71 NO, 1965-69 Assemblage: Newsp
Page 75 and 76: No (Red And Black), 1963 Oil on can
Page 77 and 78: 75 A Nazi who secretly slipped a sl
Page 79 and 80: NO 77 NO I Sprayed, 1963 Spray pain
Page 81 and 82: NO 79 Untitled, 1963 Assemblage: Oi
Page 83 and 84: HARD WRITINGS 81 IN, 1960-62 Assemb
Page 85 and 86: HARD WRITINGS 83 German Word “God
Page 87 and 88: ADIEU AMERIQUE 85 NO With Mrs. Kenn
Page 89 and 90: Untitled (AMERICAN), 1961 Collage:
Page 91 and 92: ADIEU AMERIQUE 89 Adieu Amerique, 1
Page 93 and 94: ADIEU AMERIQUE 91
Page 95 and 96: Adieu Amerique, 1960 Oil on canvas,
Page 103 and 104: ADIEU AMERIQUE 101 Mort Aux Juif! I
Page 107 and 108: Now, No More, 1962 Oil on canvas, 1
Page 109 and 110: SCULPTURES 107 Ax Series #3, 1970-7
Page 111 and 112: 109 Dear Old Master Chagall! The cr
Page 113 and 114: SCULPTURES 111 Untitled, undated As
Page 115 and 116: NO COMPROMISES 113 The Art of CILLY
Page 117 and 118: 115 While most survivors of the Nat
Page 119 and 120: 117 ‘Zeitgenössische Kunst gegen
Page 121 and 122: 119 The first NO!art anthology appe
Page 123 and 124: 121 reprinted an enlarged photograp
Page 125: 123 06 See KARL JASPERS The Questio
Page 129 and 130: 127 03 Lacan juxtaposed the metapho
Page 131 and 132: 129 05 BORIS LURIE “Les Lions Sho
Page 133 and 134: 131 09 The newly attained sexual fr
Page 135 and 136: 133 image of the woman is integrate
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Page 139 and 140: 137 The canon defines a system of r
Page 141 and 142: 139 sible to ascertain and discuss
Page 143 and 144: 141 06 In the Jewish Encyclopedia,
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Page 147 and 148: 145 03 On this, see LIFE from 10 Ma
Page 149 and 150: 147 First illustration in the broch
Page 151 and 152: 149 09 See HANNAH ARENDT Ich will v
Page 153 and 154: 151 Wolf Vostell, Wir waren so eine
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Page 157 and 158: 155 03 ESTERA MILMAN NO!art and the
Page 159 and 160: 157 09 Video interview by Matthias
Page 161 and 162: 159 19 MILMAN 2000, time code 01:05
Page 163 and 164: 161 I Boris had pledged to smoke le
Page 165 and 166: 163 Although Boris rarely leaves hi
Page 167 and 168: 165 saw not only the reason for the
Page 169 and 170: 167 East Village. I would really ha
Page 171 and 172: Biography Exhibitions Selection 169
Page 173 and 174: (Hand), 1962 Collage: Oil and pictu
Page 175 and 176: Untitled, 1960-70 Oil on canvas, 91
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AUTHORS 175 EIKO GRIMBERG is an art
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