Irkutsk State Art Museum named after Vladimir Sukachev
Looking at this work, it is impossible not to recall the work of Pablo Picasso in 1907, "Avignon maidens". But if for Picasso cubism was necessary for the analysis of form, and colour in his case did not play an important role, the Russian artists with a passion for cubist principles managed to maintain the activity of colour. Thus there was solely a Russian phenomenon – the Cubo-futurism, combining cubistic shapes with vivid intense colour. "Portrait of my uncle" became a clear illustration of the theses about futurism and cubism, that David Burliuk put forward during his lectures.
Later, when David Burliuk made a Siberian tour in 1918-1919, he repeated this picture frequently and successfully sold its versions in different cities. However, in spite of many author's copies this is the only extant portrait of his uncle. According to the memoirs of Burliuk’s friend, the artist and iconographer Eugene Spassky, this oeuvre was the only one, for which Burliuk was able to find a buyer in almost every city: "the artist made [a portrait] quickly in a hotel, pasting pieces of newspaper into a face torn by corners, with three eyes, two noses, and so on." The portrait is executed on a small primed piece of plywood in an energetic manner – some details were lost. So, on the cheek of the model unpainted piece of plywood is gaping – a piece of fabric used to be glued, that imitated the light stubble of the painter’s uncle.
Apparently the portrait depicts Burliuk’s uncle from the maternal line, Vladimir Osipovich Mikhnevich, a well-known columnist, newspaperman of 1880-90-ies, which together with Ossip Notovich published the newspaper "News".