Time

Brief description

Time is a puzzle painting, created by an offbeat futurist David Burliuk at the time when he was intensively experimenting with composition and texture. Every detail here is hinting at the general idea. 

What we see is a scene at a train station depicted rather unconventionally. The title is intriguing, though its original Russian version (“Vremya”) can be recognized in the “-emya” particle, which is depicted here as a fragment of the older-day newspaper Novoye Vremya (Rus. Новое Время). The paining, almost square in shape, is nevertheless reminiscent of a clock face due to the circular composition. The schematic representation of the figures on the platform is very reminiscent of a stopwatch.

The simplistic figures on the platform somewhat remind the hands of the chronometer. All the movement seems to be happening from right to left, yet the tipped over wagons make the direction turn the opposite way, as if they were slowing down the flow of time. The number 1324 in the lower left is most likely not an abstraction. Perhaps, the artist documented the new high-speed steam train manufactured in Kharkiv at that time.
The sense of rhythm is evident everywhere. Three time layers seem to be mixed in together. First, there is the background, where time is constantly passing. The painting technique implies the sense of weightlessness. Then there is time today embodied realistically in the static face. And the third is a transcendental perspective, i.e. the viewer is observing the painting from the future.

Ihor Trush, Lead Researcher at the Art Museum of Dnipropetrovsk