Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try

Centered around Lurie's earliest work, the so-called "War Series," as well as never-before-exhibited objects and ephemera from his personal collection, Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try presents a portrait of an artist reckoning with devastating trauma, haunting memories, and a lifelong quest for freedom. The exhibition recounts Lurie's ordeal through dozens of his artworks, including paintings, drawings, and sculptures, many of which he never exhibited during his lifetime. These works are presented along with hundreds of objects from the artist's personal archive that trace his experience from his childhood in Riga through the concentration camps and postwar period in Europe, to his immigration to the United States, followed by his return visit to Riga thirty years after the Holocaust, and beyond. Family photographs, official documents, correspondences, research materials, and personal writings underpin the visual retelling and processing of Lurie's survival and its crucial function in forming his identity as an artist.