David Burliuk

(1882 - 1967)

1931-1

Color and Rhyme

No. 1, 1931 (English)

319 x 240 mm.

4 pages.

David Burliuk and his Art. Exhibition of paintings by Burliuk at the Brooklyn Art Gallery. Reprint of an article by O.Sayler (Vanity Fair, September, 1919) on Russian contemporary Artt

From 1931 the Burliuk family irregularly published this quaint periodical to advocate and promote the art and artistic ideas of David Burliuk and talented avant-garde colleagues. The final issue, no. 66, was published some years after the artist had died. All together there were 60 numbers in 58 issues. Some numbers were omitted along the way (nrs.10, 54, 59, 63, 64 and 65 seem never to have been published). Typically, Burliuk wrote more issues in English, however a few are in Russian as well. The first two decades Color and Rhyme largely documents contemporary events concerning Burliuk and his friends such as Fechin, Cickovsky and Eilshemius. Some issues were used as catalogues for Burliuk exhibitions, others have manifesto’s written by the artist or reprint articles from newspapers and magazines. In the 1950s Burliuk started writing accounts of his Russian years, with memoirs on Maiakovskii and the futurists, Filonov and the Blue Rider.  Gradually, as the paper progressed, Burliuk seemed to lose contact with the newest trends in art. Like many a family-run publication, Color and Rhyme seems to lack a firm structure, production values are a bit helter-skelter. Nevertheless, both for the study of Russian avant-garde art and the study of émigré artists from the period 1920-1950, the value of this publication is great.

References:

Kalet 1982, pp. 131-133

Brussels 2005, nr. 124