More than 200 long-hidden paintings, drawings, and personal archives by Holocaust survivor and avant-garde artist Boris Lurie opened Sunday, October 18, at the Maltz Museum in Beachwood, offering visitors a profound look at trauma and memory through January 27, 2027.
The traveling exhibition, titled Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try,
brings together works created largely in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The collection explores the harrowing experiences of an artist who survived Nazi-occupied Latvia, forced labor, and concentration camps before immigrating to the United States in 1946.
War Series Paintings Reflect Lurie's Wartime Trauma
At the center of the exhibition is the “War Series,” a collection of nearly 100 paintings and drawings created primarily in 1946 as Lurie grappled with wartime trauma. After his service in the Counter-Intelligence Corps and his subsequent immigration to New York, Lurie utilized the War Series as a private catharsis, keeping the creations entirely hidden for decades while consenting to their display only after his death.
Among the notable pieces featured in the Beachwood staging is Roll Call in Concentration Camp
(1946), which draws directly on his memories of imprisonment and the relentless daily realities of camp life. Another particularly revealing piece from 1947, titled “Portrait of My Mother Before Shooting,” portrays his mother in a work that he kept private throughout his life.
These were private works, created beginning in the year after he had arrived in America.
Stephanie Siebich, executive director of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation
Born in Leningrad in 1924, Lurie grew up in Riga, Latvia. When Nazi forces occupied the city in 1941, his family was forced into the Riga ghetto. His grandmother, mother, sister, and girlfriend were among approximately 25,000 Jews murdered during the Rumbula Forest Massacre on November 30 and December 8, 1941. Lurie and his father survived years of forced labor and concentration camps before their liberation in 1945 and eventual relocation to New York.
Archival Artifacts and Family Photographs
Beyond the artwork, the exhibition incorporates more than 200 total objects, pairing Lurie’s visual expressions with personal memorabilia. Visitors encounter family photographs, diaries, correspondence, identification cards, and other archival materials that offer insight into his life and creative process.
Some of the most striking archival items are prewar photographs of Lurie’s family in Riga. The show pairs artworks with personal items Lurie retrieved from his family’s Riga Ghetto apartment.
Stephanie Stebich, executive director of the Boris Lurie Art Foundation, noted that the preservation of these early family photos and camp documents is remarkably rare for someone who endured such extreme confinement at age 16.
Museum of Jewish Heritage Curated the Exhibition
The exhibition was organized originally by the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, serving as that institution’s first contemporary art exhibition when it premiered in October 2021. It was later extended through late 2022 due to high visitor interest, according to the Remember the Women Institute. The Maltz Museum staging in Beachwood features an expanded layout with additional early New York-era works not shown at earlier tour stops.
Sara Softness, director of curatorial affairs at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, curated the exhibition. She explained that the display serves as a direct portrait of an individual authentically confronting trauma.
As much as this is a display of his artwork, it really attempts, in some way, to be a portrait of a person, and a person who’s very authentically dealing with what it means to reckon with trauma.
Sara Softness, director of curatorial affairs at the Museum of Jewish Heritage
Aaron Petersal, executive director of the Maltz Museum, emphasized that bringing visitors face-to-face with the art and personal archive provides a powerful opportunity to reflect on history and memory.
Lurie Co-Founded NO!Art Movement to Challenge Culture
Later in life, Lurie co-founded the radical NO!art movement in 1959 alongside Sam Goodman and Stanley Fisher, using provocative subject matter to challenge consumer culture, war, and genocide. Yet his early wartime memories remained a foundational current throughout his creative life.
For more information, visitors can visit the Maltz Museum website or call (216) 593-0575.