Cossack Mamai 1912

I can see David Burliuk building up the Cossack Mamai from a series of intuitive gestures and bold strokes, mostly in browns and oranges. You can see that he starts with some dark lines and then adds layers of ochre and other colors over top. I try to put myself in his shoes, feel the brush in my hand. I can see him standing back, squinting, trying to get the balance just right. What does it mean to be a Cossack? How do you paint that? In a folk style like this, the artist isn't trying to capture appearances but an essence, a mood. That stroke of yellow on the lute, for example, how does that change the feeling of the whole painting? It’s not just a color, it's a decision, a moment of clarity and intention. It reminds me a bit of Kandinsky's approach to artmaking, which makes sense because they knew each other. We're all looking at the same world, aren't we?