Portrait of woman 

David Burliuk’s portrait of a woman presents a striking face rendered with bold color and texture. The face itself, a complex of ochre and raw umber, emerges from a field of viridian and turquoise, colors that both clash and complement in a visually arresting manner. The composition is deliberately raw; Burliuk employs visible, almost sculptural brushstrokes that deny any illusion of smoothness or traditional beauty. This is where we find the semiotic disruption. The artist challenges our expectations of portraiture, eschewing conventional representation in favor of an emotionally direct and structurally expressive image. The face is built from thick layers of paint that delineate the planes and angles of the woman's features. Light and shadow are exaggerated and stark. This technique serves not only to highlight the materiality of the paint itself but also to create a sense of depth and volume that speaks to the modernist ambition of revealing rather than concealing the artistic process.