How the "Father of Russian Futurism" Brought Western Avant-Garde Art to Japan: The Fantastic Life of David Burliuk

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Alexander Blok argued that David Burliuk (together with his brothers-poets, collectively "Burliuk") scares him in absentia. Vladimir Mayakovsky, on the contrary, called Burliuk his teacher and even his savior. And Velimir Khlebnikov, whom our hero also provided all kinds of patronage, refused to pose for Repin himself with the words: “Burliuk has already painted me - in his portrait I look like a triangle!”. Who was this mysterious man who adorned his face with silhouettes of cats and painted Mount Fuji at dawn?

David Burliuk did not leave anyone of his acquaintances (and strangers - readers, critics, spectators …) indifferent. It seemed that his whole life was an endless performance dedicated to himself. He was the founding father of Russian futurism, took part in the activities of many creative unions and associations. At the same time, there is not a single loud scandal, enmity, rivalry in its history, and in fact the Russian bohemia of the beginning of the 20th century resembled a cross between a snake's nest and a barrel of gunpowder. A revolutionary in art, in life he was a calm, balanced person, who knew how to spread paternal care to everyone who was attracted by the magnetic field of his personality, and knew how to turn failures and losses for his own good. He was born in the Kharkov province in 1882. His father was an agronomist, manager of the Chernodolinsky reserve estate of Count A. A. Mordvinov. Two brothers and three sisters of David Burliuk grew up creative people, everyone was fond of painting and poetry. However, already in childhood, David's painting career was under threat - in a fight with his brother, he lost an eye. Even modern prosthetics did not reach such heights that an artificial eye looked like a real one in everything, and in those years, prostheses both looked strange and were not comfortable to use. However, over the years, Burliuk even began to flaunt his peculiarity, meticulously looking at those around him with an artificial eye through a lorgnette and claiming that it was this injury that gave him a unique view of things.

He said the following about art: “A true work of art can be compared to a battery, from which the energy of electrical suggestions emanates … dry up. This is how he subsequently spoke about the works of, for example, Nicholas Roerich. But he himself strove to create something “charged”.

Carried away by drawing while studying in Kazan and Odessa, he at first wanted to join the ranks of professional artists, but failed the exams at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. But he was not upset and decided to conquer the capitals of avant-garde art - Munich and Paris. From there he brought a lot of impressions. In the 1910s, in the Chernyanka estate, where his father worked in those years, Burliuk wrote a manifesto of Russian futurism "A Slap in the Face to Public Taste", calling for "to throw Pushkin off the Steamer of Modernity", and his brothers and sisters became the first Russian futurists together with the young Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov, Lentulov and Larionov …

It was Burliuk and his new comrades who organized the "Jack of Diamonds" society in Russia, which adapted the techniques of European modernism. His own painting was very eclectic - from primitivism to cubism. The main thing is that the work should be built on the three whales of futurism - "disharmony, asymmetry and deconstruction." However, Burliuk's landscapes and still lifes, referring to Fauvism and Impressionism, do not seem so disharmonious at all.

He actively organized exhibitions and what is called preformations in contemporary art - absurd theatrical performances. He participated in the creation of many poetry collections, studied poetry himself and supported many young poets - he also helped Mayakovsky financially, if only he had the opportunity to write poetry. "Baby, come with me!" - he could have thrown another hungry talent, and he went with him to Chernyanka for full allowance. Burliuk dressed eccentrically, painted strange drawings on his face, let alone a glass eye … And at the same time he gave the impression of a practical, even boring man in the street, did not strive for luxury, was a good family man.

After the First World War (the injury allowed him to avoid military conscription), miraculously escaping persecution for his peculiar political views, he and his wife first moved to Bashkiria (the largest collection of his paintings is kept in the Bashkir Art Museum named after M. V. Nesterov), and two years later he emigrated to Japan. Presumably, the father of Maria Yelenevskaya, his chosen one, was a diplomatic worker in Vladivostok and was able to facilitate their "escape".

And for a couple of years of living in Japan, Burliuk managed to become the "father of Japanese modernism" and a cult figure in contemporary art! It was he who brought Fauvism, Cubism and other modern European trends to Japan. His landscapes demonstrate how organically modernist techniques reflect the nature and architecture of the Land of the Rising Sun. Views of Mount Fuji, ancient temples, portraits of friends and neighbors, reminiscent of either Cezanne or Rousseau, introduced the Japanese public to the latest achievements of Western art. In addition, a stormy creative activity allowed the artist to earn money for a further move to the United States.

Where he, of course, also did not disappear. In America, David Burliuk opened a publishing house and his own art gallery, worked for the pro-communist newspaper “Russian Voice”, exhibited a lot, organized another youth creative union, but did not break ties with his homeland. In the 50s and 60s, he managed to visit the USSR, but they did not intend to publish his work there. During his long life, the creator of Russian and Japanese futurism, according to his own calculations, created more than twenty thousand paintings and radically changed the vector of art development - literally on a global scale. His work is kept in museums around the globe, and descendants still live in the United States and Canada.