The Boris Lurie Art Foundation is dedicated to reflect the life, work, and aspirations of the founder and to preserve and promote the NO!art movement with its focus on the social visionary in art and culture.
Boris Lurie, A Holocaust survivor who emigrated to New York in 1946, was very active in the post-war New York avant-garde scene, founding the NO!art movement in 1959. The NO!Art movement calls for socially and politically involved art that resists and combats the repressive forces of the market. For the most part, critics and curators of the day rejected Lurie and NO!art, yet Lurie continued to produce his highly charged political and social imagery throughout his life. In recent years a reexamining of Lurie’s work has led to major museum exhibitions and new appreciation for the impact his work had on Post-War American Art.
Following Lurie’s death in 2008, the Foundation was established under the leadership of Gertrude Stein, Lurie’s gallerist and lifelong companion. The Foundation maintains the artist’s massive body of work, poetry, personal writings and archives, as well as the works of other NO!art artists which are under its control. Ms. Stein and the Foundation’s board honor the spirit of Mr. Lurie’s bequest by supporting a variety of initiatives, including public exhibitions, publications, films, acquisition, internships, and grants. Through this range of activity the Boris Lurie Art Foundation believes it will make a material contribution to the artistic, social, and educational life of the community.
