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John Lurie

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John Lurie
Born(1952-12-14)December 14, 1952
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actor, musician, painter and television producer
Years active1978–present
TelevisionFishing with John, Oz
Websitewww.strangeandbeautiful.com/news/index.html

John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American actor, musician, painter and producer. He is co-founder of The Lounge Lizards, a jazz ensemble. Lurie has acted in 19 films including Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law, composed and performed music for 20 television and film works, and he produced and starred in Fishing with John, a 1991 television series. In 1996 his soundtrack for Get Shorty was nominated for a Grammy Award. For five years he appeared in the HBO television show Oz.

Lurie refocused his attention on painting, his first major show in May 2004, in New York City. His primitivist art works have shown in galleries around the world. His painting Bear Surprise became an internet meme in Russia in 2006.

Early life

Lurie was born in Minneapolis.[1] Before marriage, his mother had been a painter and art teacher in Liverpool.[2] Lurie was raised alongside two siblings, his brother Evan and his sister Liz.[1] The family moved to New Orleans when John was six, later, they moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. In high school, Lurie played basketball and harmonica. He jammed on harmonica with Mississippi Fred McDowell, and with Canned Heat around 1968.[1] He played harmonica in a band from Boston, but it did not work out. He switched to guitar and then saxophone.[3]

After high school, Lurie hitchhiked across the U.S., seeing a lot of places including Berkeley, California. He moved to New York City around 1974, then briefly visited London to check out the punk music scene, which did not appeal to him. He was more interested in avant-garde jazz and no wave.[1]

Music, film and television

In 1978 he formed The Lounge Lizards with his brother Evan Lurie. The Lounge Lizards, initially a "fake jazz" combo, exhibited the talent of artists such as Calvin Weston, Billy Martin, Oren Bloedow, Steve Bernstein, Marc Ribot, and Erik Sanko, among others. The band continued to make music for 20 years. During this time, Lurie recorded 22 albums and composed scores for over 20 movies, the most notable being Stranger than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Clay Pigeons, Animal Factory, and Get Shorty, which earned him a Grammy Award nomination.[4]

During the 1980s he starred in three films directed by Jim Jarmusch, Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, and Permanent Vacation. He went on to have roles in other notable films including Paris, Texas and The Last Temptation of Christ. Lurie also starred, during 2001-2003, on the HBO prison series Oz as inmate Greg Penders.

His 1991 TV series Fishing with John, which he wrote, directed and starred in, was a cult success.[5] The critically acclaimed series aired on IFC and Bravo. Episodes included guests Tom Waits, Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Jim Jarmusch, and Dennis Hopper. It has since been released on DVD by Criterion.

In 1993 Lurie, with Howard Shore, composed the theme to Late Night with Conan O'Brien which was also used as the theme to The Tonight Show when O'Brien hosted. In 1998, Lurie formed his own record label: Strange & Beautiful Music. On it, he released Queen of All Ears, a Lounge Lizard CD, and he released a soundtrack album from Fishing with John.[6]

In 1999 Lurie released the album The Legendary Marvin Pontiac – Greatest Hits, which was purportedly a posthumous collection of the work of an insane African-Jewish musician named Marvin Pontiac. Pontiac, however, was a fictional character created by Lurie,[7] and the music was written by Lurie. Performers on the album include Lurie, John Medeski, Billy Martin, G. Calvin Weston, Marc Ribot, and Tony Scherr.[8] The album received praise from David Bowie, Angelique Kidjo, Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen, and others, who were in on the joke, and a fictional "biography" was published by Allmusic.[9]

Painting

The majority of Lurie's early works are in watercolor and pencil, but in the late 2000s he began to work in oil.[10] Lurie has been exhibiting his paintings since July 2003, when two works were shown at the Nolan/Eckman Gallery in New York City.[11]

In May–June 2004, he had his first solo gallery exhibition at Anton Kern Gallery, New York. He subsequently exhibited at Galerie Daniel Blau in Munich, Galerie Lelong in Zürich and Galerie Gabriel Rolt in Amsterdam.[11] Lurie was represented at the Basel International Art Fair in June 2005 and 2006. In January 2005, Lurie exhibited his second show in New York at Roebling Hall's new Chelsea location. On April 30, 2006, Lurie opened his first solo museum show at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York.[2] In 2007, his work was showcased at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.[12]

Lurie continued to exhibit in domestic and international venues in 2008. A collection of work was displayed at the NEXT Art Fair Chicago and Lurie's work was exhibited at the Mudam Luxembourg from October through December in 2008.[11] In addition, The Museum of Modern Art has acquired his work for their permanent collection.[13]

Lurie has published two art books. In June 2006, Lurie released his first book, Learn To Draw, a compilation of black and white drawings published by Walther Konig. In May 2008, Lurie released A Fine Example of Art, a hard cover, full color book of over 80 reproductions of his work, published by powerHouse Books. John Lurie's show The Skeleton in my closet has moved back out to the garden, was on view at Fredericks & Freiser in late 2009.[14]

Lurie's watercolor painting Bear Surprise achieved enormous popularity on numerous Russian websites, in an Internet phenomenon known as Preved.[15]

John Lurie exhibited at Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo beginning January 30, 2010, showing hundreds of his works. From late June to early August, he showed 45 prints at Gallery Brown in Los Angeles.[16]. In January 2011, John Lurie participated in a group exhibition called "Angels Without Wings" at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Lurie said of his childlike style: "My paintings are a logical development from the ones that were taped to the refrigerator 50 years ago."[17]

Personal life

In New York City, he has lived with a girlfriend but has not married. The artist Jean-Michel Basquiat slept on Lurie's apartment floor for a few days at a time, on and off over a couple of years, leaving studies and artwork behind. In cleaning his apartment, Lurie says he may have thrown away "millions of dollars worth" of art.[10]

In interviews, Lurie says he has been in ill health since 1994, with baffling neurological symptoms.[4][18] At one point, he was told he had a year to live, and his girlfriend moved out.[3] The doctors he has consulted do not all agree on a diagnosis, but Lurie says he believes a group of eight who say it is late persistent Lyme disease, a chronic malady.[1][3] The illness has kept him from acting or performing music, and Lurie spends his energy painting.[1][4][19]

In August 2010, Tad Friend wrote a piece in The New Yorker about Lurie disappearing from New York, hiding from an artist named John Perry, who Friend said was stalking Lurie.[20] Friend's version of the incident was questioned in a blog called "Dangerous Minds", and the blog attracted comments from Lurie, Perry, and their friends, who variously disputed, supported, or expanded upon the story.[4][21] Lurie, who has lived in Turkey, Grenada, and several locations in California since his early 2009 disagreement with Perry, described the article as "wildly inaccurate", noting in February 2011 that its publication did not resolve anything, that "the situation continues".[4]

Filmography

Discography

John Lurie

Lounge Lizards

Soundtracks

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Broun, Tim (December 2006). "John Lurie: Interview by Tim Broun". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved February 14, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b John Lurie at P.S. 1, ARTINFO, May 5, 2006, retrieved 2008-05-20
  3. ^ a b c Ortiz, Alan (March 1, 2009). "Q&A: John Lurie (Unabridged)". Stop Smiling. Stop Smiling Media. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d e Sutton, Larson (February 1, 2011). "John Lurie Sustains". jambands.com. Relix Media Group. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  5. ^ "'Fishing with John' - The TV Show". US Television Programming. BBC. June 20, 2001. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  6. ^ Amorosi, A.D. (June 11, 1998). "20 Questions: John Lurie". Philadelphia City Paper. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  7. ^ Robins, Wayne (2008-04-21), Behind The Legend of the Legendary Marvin Pontiac: A Conversation with John Lurie, Emusic Magazine {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ The Legendary Marvin Pontiac - Greatest Hits, Emusic.
  9. ^ Marvin Pontiac, Allmusic.
  10. ^ a b Laden, Tanja M. (July 9, 2010). "Speaking With John". The Huffington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  11. ^ a b c Lurie, John. "News". Strange&Beautiful. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  12. ^ "John Lurie: The Erotic Poetry of Hoog"
  13. ^ MoMA permanent collection search
  14. ^ John Lurie in Chelsea, Basquiat Blog.
  15. ^ Sonkin, Victor (May 12, 2006). "Salon: The "preved" phenomenon gained enormous popularity on the Russian-language Internet with the speed of an avalanche". The Moscow Times. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  16. ^ "Gallery Brown shows John Lurie's "The Invention of Animals"". Art Knowledge News. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  17. ^ Amorosi, A.D. (February 10, 2011). "Melancholy Mirth". The Inquirer Digital: Arts & Entertainment. Philly.com. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  18. ^ "John Lurie's Works on Paper". The Leonard Lopate Show. 2006-06-14. WNYC. {{cite episode}}: Check date values in: |airdate= (help); Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ Forson, Kofi (September 2009). "In Conversation with John Lurie". Whitehot Magazine. Retrieved February 14, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ Friend, Tad (August 16, 2010). "Sleeping With Weapons: Why did John Lurie disappear?" (abstract). The New Yorker. Condé Nast Digital: 51. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  21. ^ Campbell, Marc (August 18, 2010). "Is John Perry a phantom in John Lurie's head?". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved February 15, 2011.


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