NEIN! Boris Lurie and NO!art

On the occasion of its reopening following the completion of accessibility improvements, the Kebbel Villa presents the exhibition NEIN! Boris Lurie and NO!art, in collaboration with the Boris Lurie Art Foundation.

The opening of the exhibition and the reopening of the Kebbel Villa will take place on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at 11 a.m.

Speakers:

• Andreas Feller, Lord Mayor of the City of Schwandorf
• Jürgen Dehm, Director of the Kebbel Villa
• Stephanie Stebich, Executive Director of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation

Following the opening: Performance “Boris Lurie: Echoes of Memory – Music, Art, and the Holocaust” by Ilana Zaks-Nederlander. Introduction by Stephanie Stebich, Executive Director of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation.

Boris Lurie (1924 Leningrad, Soviet Union – 2008 New York, USA) grew up in Riga, Latvia. He survived the Riga ghetto and the concentration camps at Stutthof and Buchenwald. His mother, grandmother, younger sister, and childhood love were murdered during the Rumbula massacre in 1941. In 1946, Lurie emigrated to the United States with his father, settling in New York, where he lived and worked as an artist until his death in 2008. Although he described himself as a 'privileged' survivor and never regarded himself as a victim, his artistic work was shaped by his engagement with violence, abuse of power and collective helplessness.

As a largely self-taught artist, Lurie developed an uncompromising visual language combining collage, painting, photography and assemblage. He frequently juxtaposed images of the Holocaust with motifs from popular culture, resulting in works that were explicitly political and socially provocative. In 1959, he founded the NO!art movement with Sam Goodman and Stanley Fisher. NO!art defined itself as a radical avant-garde anti-art movement, with exhibition titles such as Doom, Involvement and Vulgar, their exhibitions addressed topics including imperialism, racism, sexism, consumerism, war, genocide and nuclear threat. They believed that art should not only have an aesthetic effect but also be understood as an act of social intervention. The group still exists today.

The exhibition at the Kebbel Villa showcases pivotal pieces from different stages of Lurie's career, starting with his initial War series from 1946. In addition, it includes works shown to the public for the first time, focusing on German words and expressions – such as the titular “NEIN” – as well as selected works by his NO!art colleagues Goodman and Fisher.

Lurie's works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad, including at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York (2022), the Riga Bourse Art Museum (2020), the Jewish Museum Berlin (2016), and Galerie Agnès B., Paris (2003). Following his death, research and exhibition grants, as well as the work of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, have contributed to the preservation and international recognition of his work.