Russians stole a painting by a Ukrainian futurist from the Kherson Art Museum

Kherson Art Museum named after Oleksii Shovkunenko has posted a photo of a painting by a famous Ukrainian artist, Davyd Burliuk; the painting has been stolen by the Russian occupiers fleeing the city.

The museum shared the photo of this work from its exhibition on Facebook. 

The Kherson Museum noted that  poet, writer and one of the most famous Ukrainian artists in the world Davyd Burliuk was born in Kharkiv governorate (now Sumy Oblast), but began his creative activity in Kherson Oblast, in the village of Chornianka. 

"In Kherson Oblast, Davyd Burliuk gave the first lectures on futurism, a popular painting style and movement in literature of the beginning of the 20th century, and together with like-minded friends published the first collections of futuristic poetry: Mare’s Milk, Cork, Dead Moon," the museum added. 

Among other art objects, the Russian occupiers retreating from Kherson in the fall of 2022 stole Burliuk's Rural Landscape (1930), which belongs to the American period of the artist's work.

Burliuk's work entered the museum collection in 1980 from a private collection – the artist generously gave away his works to friends, acquaintances, and journalists.

Davyd Burliuk is a Ukrainian futurist artist, one of the creators of Ukrainian modernism of the early 20th century, as well as poet and art theorist, literary and art critic, and publisher. He presented himself as a "Tatar-Zaporozhian futurist". He studied at the Oleksandrivka Men's Gymnasium (Sumy), where he received the nickname "artist". Then he studied for a year at the Kazan Art School, and two more at the Odesa Art School, and later in Munich and Paris. 

His art was influenced by impressionism, neo-primitivism and other modern trends, and eventually he became a futurism both in painting and literature. He organized art associations, creative schools, scandalous events for futurists, and was the editor of the First Futurist Magazine.

After the revolution of 1917, he migrated to Japan and then to the USA, where he stayed until the end of his life. In 1962, he wanted to bring an exhibition of his works to his homeland, Ukraine, but was refused by the Soviet government. According to data for 1998, 35 works by Burliuk were kept in museums and private collections in Ukraine. 

Russian soldiers looted the Kherson museum at the beginning of November last year. The Russians were transporting the items from the collection by trucks accompanied by armed men in civilian clothesfor four days. Natalia Desiatova, the "director" appointed by the occupiers, was in charge of the "evacuation" of the exhibits. 

Subsequently, the paintings from the Kherson Museum showed up in the Simferopol Art Museum; the director of the Kherson Museum, Alina Dotsenko, recognized them. And after retreating from Kherson, the Russians also shelled the museum. 

Recently, the museum identified two more paintings stolen by the Russian occupiers: the painting by Latvian artist Karlis Dobrais "Restorers" (1962), donated by the author to the museum in Kherson in 2017, and the painting by Ukrainian artist Leonid Labenko "In the Hills" (1969). And later the staff has recodnised three more. 

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