Boris Lurie drew, glued, and wrote all over the suitcase he had with him when he and his father immigrated to America in 1946, after being liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp. Immigrant's NO Suitcase (Anti-Pop) is more than just a descriptive title, it represents a personal object transformed into art. Thus it is among the most personal of his art objects, related to his most immediate experience, and has acquired the status of a memorial object. This is a work with real history and significance, the presence of these elements explains the frankness and daring of Lurie’s work.

Similar to many of Lurie’s other works, Immigrant's NO Suitcase (Anti-Pop) can be understood better and more emphatically if one is familiar with the artist’s biography. Someone who has not experienced the hell of concentration camps and the extermination of their family would not have the moral right to demonstratively use the “taboo” symbols of the swastika and yellow Star of David in such a cynical context as Lurie does. He uses it consciously and with disgust, topping it all with his NO. This seemingly unethical use of signs and symbols, referring to his own experience, bringing it out in the open, serves as therapy for the artist. Lurie’s work has nothing to do with beauty, elation, or tasteful aesthetics. They are frank, direct, and always contemporary. Such provocative work that addresses one’s conscience never loses its topicality and exigency. Lurie Immigrant's NO Suitcase (Anti-Pop) represents documentation and a particular message.

When Boris Lurie created his Immigrant's NO!box and Immigrant's NO Suitcase (Anti-Pop) he was almost 40 years old. He had already attempted to acclimatize himself to New York City, conscious of his position, he found his imagery and vocabulary in art. He was full of thoughts, ideas, and uncompromising enthusiasm. He processed the transformations of his fate into artistic expression, creating his shocking but honest work as a reminder and a warning.

We see on these objects Lurie’s characteristic themes, his vocabulary of signs and symbols, the same unforgettable and incongruous juxtapositions he used in his paintings and collages. Nazi swastikas coexist with Stars of David and documentary photos of concentrations camp inmates clipped out of magazines. That these images appear on an everyday object seems even more absurd than if they were to be on a painting meant for an exhibition. It is this kind of work, with real scenes from concentration camps and mass graves, that stick permanently in one’s memory. Sadly, Lurie did not have to invent or exaggerate anything, because the truth was much more appalling than his most disturbing work.

In a way, Immigrant's NO Suitcase (Anti-Pop) formally fits into the American art scene of the 1960s, where there was a place for the free, subconscious-driven approach, the use of collage and assemblage; and the signification of symbols and inscriptions. Yet what is different here is the tragic subject matter and the reference to the documentary reality of experience.

The use of these documentary images and past attributes underscore the seemingly unbelievable cruelty of humanity and the fact that here, Lurie rejects any aesthetic aspects of art, underpinned by his desire to present his work to the world as an accusation. The suitcases have acquired an added significance and cannot be considered simple objets trouvés or ready- mades characteristic of 20th century art. The artistic and the abstract have taken second place to bitter documentality, for it is the victim who has exposed the suffering and humiliation he has experienced.

Ivonna Veiherte, May 2020