David Burliuk devoted his artistic practice—which spanned painting, poetry, drawing, and engraving—to the pursuit of the modern. He was a Russian-language poet, artist, and publicist associated with the Futurist and Neo-Primitivist movements. He has been described as "the father of Russian Futurism." Using bold typefaces, vibrant colors, and energetic brush strokes, Burliuk turned against the artistic conventions of the past, capturing Russian Futurism’s ideas of dynamism, innovation, and revolution, as declared in the 1912 manifesto A Slap in the Face of Public Taste. Burliuk and his Futurist compatriots challenged audiences to question the accepted ideals of aesthetics and beauty in the hope of developing a new and more forward-thinking world. Often referred to as "the father of Ukrainian and Russian Futurism.” At the outbreak of World War I, Burliuk fled to Siberia then Japan before relocating to New York in 1922, where he died in 1967.