40 Years of Paintings and Works on Paper
From the Collection of Louis and Annette Kaufman
Reception: May 2, 5:30-7:30
Catalogue Available with Essay by Edward Lucie-Smith
Additional Events: At the reception on Friday, May 2, Dr. Annette Kaufman will autograph copies of Fiddler’s Tale, a memoir of the life of Louis Kaufman published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2003. A gallery talk and tour of the exhibition will be conducted by internationally acclaimed art critic and historian Edward Lucie-Smith at 4:00 on Saturday, May 3.
Santa Fe, NM – Santa Fe is fortunate to be the site of a remarkable exhibition of more than 40 dramatic paintings and works on paper by David Burliuk—known as “the father of Russian Futurism.” A major figure in the intellectual and artistic avant-garde of early 20th century Russia, Burliuk is today also regarded as one of the most interesting and significant American Modernists for his work in the United States following his emigration from Russia in 1922.
On view at LewAllen from May 2 to June 1, 2008, David Burliuk: Russian Modernist is one of the largest and most diverse exhibitions of Burliuk’s work on this continent since his death in 1967. Burliuk's work was recently a major part of an internationally acclaimed exhibition at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russian Futurism and David Burliuk. Forty years after his death, his work is experiencing an enormous resurgence of interest and critical attention throughout the three continents of his residence as well as very favorable response at auction.
As interesting as the artist and works themselves is the story of the extraordinary private collection of Modernist masterworks of which Burliuk's paintings are but a part. This collection was amassed during the first half of the 20th century by two notable connoisseurs of Modernist art—the acclaimed concert violinist Louis Kaufman, now deceased, and his wife, Dr. Annette Kaufman, a gifted pianist who was also his accompanist.
It is Louis Kaufman’s virtuosic violin that is heard most prominently in more than 500 Hollywood movies of the 1930s-60s, including “Casablanca,” “Gone with the Wind,” “Wuthering Heights,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Spartacus” and “Cleopatra.” Kaufman also toured the world in concert and made hundreds of recordings. His recording of a previously little-known collection of violin concertos—“The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi—won the Grand Prix du Disque in 1950 and entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002.
Annette Kaufman will be on hand at the opening of the LewAllen exhibition to autograph copies of Fiddler’s Tale, a fascinating memoir of Louis’ life that she assisted him in writing. The Kaufman Collection is now represented exclusively by LewAllen Modern, a recently formed division of the LewAllen Galleries. The Burliuk exhibition is the first in a series of shows planned to feature leading work from the Collection.
The exhibition is unusual both for the high quality of work and the fact that most pieces were acquired by the Kaufman’s directly from the artist and are now available for the first time in the art market. The show also includes a bronze head by Isamu Naguchi of Burliuk’s wife, Marussia, cast at the request of the Kaufman’s. The show is accompanied by a catalogue with an extensive essay by Edward Lucie-Smith, London-based author of more than 100 books dealing with art movements and artists. Mr. Lucie-Smith will give a gallery talk on the exhibition on May 3, at 4 p.m.
David Burliuk was an eccentric character as well as a significant figure in early 20th century avant-garde Russian art. He has been described as one of the world’s “first hippies.” Much as restless, disaffected youth were drawn to Greenwich Village, Haight-Ashbury and Taos in the 1960s, Burliuk and his companions were drawn to Moscow in the first decade of the 20th century.
Burliuk was a leading figure in the Russian art movements known today as Neo-Primitivism (1908-12), Rayonism (1912-14) and Cubo-Futurism (1913-14). He also co-wrote the Russian Futurist poets' manifesto, A Slap in the Face of Public Taste (1913), which declared “We alone are the face of our Time.”
As a painter, he exhibited with Kandinsky, Chagall, Franz Marc and others in the “Blue Rider” group in Munich in 1911, and as part of the influential “Jack of Diamonds” group in Moscow from 1910 to 1918. Picasso, Matisse and Derain were among the celebrated international artists who sometimes exhibited with them in Moscow.
True to the Futurists’ philosophy of embracing all styles, Burliuk’s oeuvre on display at LewAllen ranges from Neo-Primitive depictions of Russian peasant life and fables, to Social Realist depictions of New York City and its environs, Surrealist fishermen, and Cubo-Futuristic scenes of the Hudson River. Such prominent institutions as the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan, the Guggenheim and the Phillips Collection in the United States now include his work in their permanent collections.
Born in 1882 in the Ukraine, Burliuk enjoyed access to a high degree of education, with periods of study in Kazan, Odessa, Munich, Paris and Moscow. He fled Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution and spent the next several years in Siberia and then Japan. After emigrating to America, Burliuk lived in New York and the Hamptons, receiving major shows in the 1920s at the Brooklyn Museum and at the Société Anonyme Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died in 1967 in the Hamptons and later that year was honored posthumously by induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
