Vladimir Davidovich Burliuk

Vladimir Burliuk was born on 27 March 1886 (15 March, Old Style) in Kharkiv, then part of the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. He trained across several schools in Germany and the Russian Empire over more than a decade: at Anton Azbe's private painting school in Munich in 1903, at the Kyiv Art School from 1905 to 1910, reportedly for a period at the Odessa Art School around 1910 to 1911 according to a single source not corroborated by standard reference works, and at the Penza School of Art from 1911 to 1915. No formal degree or diploma is documented for him in the sources reviewed.

He worked alongside his older brother David Burliuk within Hylaea, the Futurist literary and artistic circle active around 1908 to 1910, and in 1910 both brothers helped found two defining Moscow and St. Petersburg groups, the Knave of Diamonds and the Union of Youth. Through the early 1910s he exhibited widely: at the Vladimir Izdebsky Salons from 1909 to 1911, with the Neue Kunstlervereinigung Munchen in 1910 to 1911, with Der Blaue Reiter in Munich in 1912, at the Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon at Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin in 1913, and at the Salon des Independants in Paris in 1914.

He was killed in 1917 while serving on the Macedonian front of World War I, with sources placing his death in or near Thessaloniki, Greece. No source consulted gives an exact calendar date for his death, and this should be understood as a documented but incompletely dated fact rather than an omission.

Vladimir Burliuk's standing rests mainly on his participation in the exhibitions and groups that defined the Russian avant-garde rather than on individual critical reviews written about him by name. His role as a founding member of the Knave of Diamonds and the Union of Youth, and his presence in Munich alongside Der Blaue Reiter in 1912, place him inside the network that linked Russian Futurism to German Expressionism. No verbatim contemporary critical quotation naming him specifically, in a major outlet, has been located in the sources reviewed. Later recognition has come chiefly through retrospective museum exhibitions, including a joint presentation of David and Vladimir Burliuk's work at the Osthaus Museum Hagen, rather than through period press coverage of Vladimir individually.

Public auction activity that can be confirmed as belonging specifically to Vladimir Davidovich Burliuk could not be established from the sources reviewed. A work titled Yellow Mountain, circa 1913, appears under this name in a Sotheby's Russian Paintings sale catalogue (lot 190), but cross-checking against auction-market reference sources indicates that no separate auction-market identity has been established for "Vladimir Davidovich Burliuk" apart from his brother David Davidovich Burliuk (1882 to 1967), who shares the same patronymic because their father was also named David. The exact price, sale date, and sale location for the Yellow Mountain lot could not be independently confirmed, and it is possible this cataloguing entry is a variant listing for a work by David Burliuk rather than a confirmed sale by Vladimir. No confirmed, attributable auction record for Vladimir Davidovich Burliuk specifically was located. Collectors should treat any market data attributed to this name with caution and verify attribution directly against auction house cataloguing notes before relying on it.

There is no catalogue raisonne for this artist and no current gallery or estate representation has been identified. No auction record could be confirmed as belonging specifically to Vladimir Davidovich Burliuk rather than to his brother David Burliuk, who shares the same patronymic; the one located sale reference carries unresolved attribution, price, and dating questions. Because he shares a name and patronymic with his much more actively traded brother, collectors should verify any work's attribution and sale history directly against museum exhibition records and provenance documents rather than relying on database entries alone.