David Burliuk (1882-1967)

Embellished with characteristically thick impasto and illustrated in Katherine Dreier's 1944 monograph, Burliuk, Ukrainia was acquired by the family of the present owner circa 1945. The critic Howard Devree aptly captured the artist's trademarks in a 1937 review published in the Magazine of Art: 'Burliuk has developed a fairly constant symbol of the human figure, a little, squat, large-headed being, which expresses something of the pitiability of man, but also something of his patience and humor [sic], some of his hope and his heavy brutality.' (quoted in K. Dreier, Burliuk, 1944, New York, p. 150).