Children of Stalingrad

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: сollection Mary Claire Burliuk (the USA).

This work is sometimes called “Burliuk’s Guernica”. The author, who never lost touch with his homeland, used multiple parallel plots and meanings in the work. Divided into equal parts, the canvas immediately represents a peaceful life where children study, draw, sit at the dining table, and the horror of war. On the other half of the canvas, as if behind the wall (a destroyed one), an airplane flies, the air burns, people and animals flee. The central figure (compositionally and within the meaning) is a woman who hugs her children and protects them. The style of the painting defined as Neo-Impressionism refers to the traditions of American primitivist art – immigrants painted their homes with such large-headed characters.