Mother

“ABA Gallery”, New York

The artwork is the author's repetition of the work of 1910 and reveals an interesting story of relations between David Burliuk and Vasily Kandinsky. Having seen Burliuk’s paintings at the exhibition in 1910, Kandinsky invited him to participate in the activities of his "new artistic community" in Munich. In a year, the works of David and his brother Vladimir were presented at the exhibition of the society "The Blue Rider". It is known that David Burliuk visited the house of Vasily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter near Munich, where Kandinsky handed him several of his works in prose. Later Burliuk published them in the collection "Slap in the Face of Public Taste". During several years, Burliuk was in close contact with German expressionists, exhibiting with them on an equal footing and buying for his collection paintings of Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Alexey Jawlensky, and Marianna Verevkina. This rapprochement with German artists left its mark on the work of David Burliuk. One of his first expressionist works was "Portrait of a Mother", sent to the exhibition "The Blue Rider" in Munich. The female image is outlined with a characteristic rough stroke; the face shapes are simplified as much as possible and resemble a totem rather than the features of a real woman. Expressionist artists often turned to the images of archaism — so they tried to escape from the inharmonious reality that surrounded them.