After studies at the Odessa School of Arts and at private art academies in Paris (1911–1913) Nurenberg was influenced by impressionism and modernism. Having returned to Odessa, he headed an avant-garde group of young artists «The Independent» known also as «Odessa Parisians».

As for the themes, the prevailing ones were oversea voyages, exotic landscapes, mythological beings, and Biblical persons (fauns, tsarina Salomee and others). Bright placard coloring and geometry of forms resembled the style and palette of Matisse.

Works of Nurenberg of this period were collected at the exhibition «Odessa Parisians», Tsetlin Museum, Ramat Gan, Israel, 2006, and published in its catalogue. Two sketches of decorative panels of 1910 and 1915 are in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.