On the Beach, Japan 1921

David Burliuk's "On the Beach, Japan" captures a scene teeming with life, rendered in vivid, almost primal strokes. Note the figures fleeing from the charging bulls. This motif, deeply rooted in human history, evokes images of the Cretan bull-leaping rituals, where youths confronted the raw power of the animal in a dance of courage and skill. The bull, an ancient symbol of virility and strength, appears across cultures from the myth of Europa to the Egyptian Apis bull. Here, in Burliuk's rendition, the figures running from the bulls become a metaphor for humanity's perennial dance with primal forces, a theme echoed in Picasso's Guernica, where the bull represents brutality and chaos. Consider the emotional resonance: the fear, the adrenaline, the instinct for survival. Burliuk taps into a collective memory, a subconscious understanding of our place in the natural order. The bulls trigger a visceral response, stirring deep-seated fears and anxieties. The motif resurfaces, reminding us of the cyclical nature of history and the enduring power of archetypal symbols.