John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American actor, jazz composer and producer. In Russia, his watercolor Bear Surprise (in Russia renamed “Medved” or “Preved”), which became a symbol of the eponymous virtual movement, gained incredible popularity. John Lurie has appeared in three Jim Jarmusch films: Vacation without end, Outlaw and Stranger than Paradise. Also for these films and The Mysterious Train, Lurie wrote music. You’ve probably seen John Lurie in Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise
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John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American actor, jazz composer and producer.
In Russia, his watercolor Bear Surprise (in Russia renamed “Medved” or “Preved”), which became a symbol of the eponymous virtual movement, gained incredible popularity.
John Lurie has appeared in three Jim Jarmusch films: Vacation without end, Outlaw and Stranger than Paradise. Also for these films and The Mysterious Train, Lurie wrote music.
You’ve probably seen John Lurie in Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise and Down By Law. He worked for Wim Wenders in Paris, Texas. He was an apostle to Scorsese in The Last Temptation of Christ. And yet, true fans of Lurie know him as one of the leading and creative performers of jazz today. For a quarter of a century, John Lurie is the leader and inspirer of the famous avant-garde team - The Lounge Lizards.
Lizards perform jazz far from mainstream soft-bodied compositions. The creativity of Lurie and the team is a combination of styles, cultures, and the seemingly incompatible. Their tracks are cosmopolitan like Lurie's hometown of New York. Simple, mesmerizing melodies are replaced by an abstract, sometimes difficult to perceive cacophonic sound. The African rhythm in the composition “The First and Royal Queen” from the album “Queen of All Ears”, the Gershwin light swing motif “She Drove Me Mad”, the Burundi drum in “The Birds Near Her House”, the kleizmers, minimalism and soundtracks from cartoons of previous years.
The musical impressionism of the lizards impresses with its energy. The Lounge Lizards concerts seem to mesmerize the audience. On their sessions you can meet adherents of many directions: grown-up punks, rockers, fans of electro-pop. They come to concerts to feel a state close to affect, plunged into the streams of endless energy from the stage.
In addition to music and Hollywood, John Lurie paints. Draws quickly, without thinking about the plot. The outcome is usually not predictable. What remains on the canvas is commented on by the author (in the most shocking form of the viewer’s consciousness) right on the canvas. Here are some of the stories depicted in the paintings: Three white rabbits demand oral pleasure from a maiden walking in the night meadow; a horse looks at the viewer and informs him of the intention to copulate with his wife; two dogs ask, "Don't you see we're fucking?"
His “arts” were created seemingly by the hand of a child – the palette is bright, the images are cartoonish, accompanied by absurd, not always related to the plot inscriptions. In many works there is a sexual background - a kind of abstract reckless background, creating a hooligan atmosphere. No wonder the Russian "padonka" with such enthusiasm hooked on the work of the "Pindos padonka". The furor produced “Bear” Luri, or rather a picture called “Bear Surprise”[[2]], successfully renamed and remade in Photoshop by Russian bloggers in the famous “PREVEDA!”. The success of the abstract scene in Runet, as you know, exceeded all expectations.
More recently, Lurie’s “primitive” drawings should be referred to as works of art. This is thanks to several exhibitions in leading museums and galleries of the world.