Wind 1916

David Burliuk made this painting, Wind, using oil paint, and what I see are dominant earthy tones disrupted by striking red lines. I imagine Burliuk in his studio, brush in hand, layering these colors—ochre, sienna, maybe a touch of umber—to create a shifting landscape. There’s a real sense of texture here, a kind of built-up surface that suggests he’s been pushing the paint around, experimenting, letting the painting evolve through a process of trial and error. Those red lines slice through the composition, adding a jolt of energy, a sense of disruption or maybe even a kind of underlying structure. It reminds me of some of the futurist paintings I’ve seen, where artists were trying to capture the dynamism of modern life. I can imagine Burliuk thinking about movement, about how to convey the feeling of wind through abstract forms. It’s like he’s inviting us to feel the force of nature through the very act of painting.