John Lurie

Fredericks & Freiser is very pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by John Lurie. The Skeleton In My Closet Has Moved Back Out To The Garden exemplifies the sharp wit and black humor that is the heart of Lurie’s discourse. This will be Lurie’s first exhibition with Fredericks & Freiser.

What one first notices in Lurie’s work is the humor. His humor is annihilating. Lurie has developed a distinctive parlance of primitive line, colloquial language, and perceptive witticism. He broaches necessary questions in perhaps the only way we can access them—by the alarming surprise of his simplicity, and the non-sequiturs in association with his symbolism. But it would be a mistake to think the humor was the most important element of these paintings.

Like his music, the work has a broken, childlike quality that gives a glimpse into an visionary world. Alternatively exposing or addressing the larger, enduring myths of our culture through sketches of seemingly lost childhood reveries, John Lurie’s paintings presents his musings through interpretive storytelling—haunting, poignant, or puerile

as the outcome may ultimately be. Glenn O’Brien writes, “Like Thelonious Monk, Lurie knows how to exploit the seemingly wrong note, the wrong color. It is a private language of hieroglyphics reflecting his unique self-education. His paintings, while sometimes pointedly primitive, are beautifully crafted with a refined obstinacy.”

About the Artist
Having first emerged in the late 1970s as the front man for the avant-garde jazz group the Lounge Lizards, John Lurie (b. 1952) has since established himself as a formidable presence in the New York cultural scene. Lurie has recorded 22 albums and scored over 20 movies. He was nominated for a Grammy award for the score of Get Shorty. Over the past number of years, he has exhibited his works extensively. His one person exhibitions include: P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center , Long Island City; The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; the MUDAM, Luxembourg; and the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (upcoming). His books include John Lurie: A Fine Example of Art,published by Powerhouse Books in 2009, and Learn to Draw, published by Walther Koenig in 2006.

The Skeleton in my Closet has Moved Back Out to the Garden

October 10 – November 7, 2009

Images