Erik Vladimirovich Bulatov is a Russian avant-garde artist and graphic artist, a contemporary classic of conceptualism, an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts, and a corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Arts.
Eric Bulatov, "Day"
The artist was born on September 5, 1933. His parents supported their son's inclination toward visual art from childhood. His father was convinced that Erik would become an artist.
From 1947 the young man studied at the school affiliated with the State Academic Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov. After graduating from the school, as the top student, he was admitted to the painting department without exams.
Eric Bulatov, "Horizon"
Bulatov worked for about 30 years as an illustrator at the publishing house "Detgiz." His colleagues included Ilya Kabakov and O. V. Vasiliev. The publishing house specialized in producing and designing books for children and teenagers. Bulatov's vivid, colorful drawings are filled with light and a sense of joy. The artist worked according to the principle: autumn and winter were devoted to publishing work, while spring and summer were for painting.
Eric Bulatov, "Welcome"
Since 1957 Erik Bulatov began taking part in Moscow exhibitions, and from 1973 his works began to be exhibited abroad. Experts and art lovers were impressed by his philosophical approach to creativity and his contemporary view of art.
Eric Bulatov, "Russian 20th Century"
Bulatov's calling card became the juxtaposition of poster-like post-Soviet text with figurative illustration. His paintings emphasized the absurdity and artificiality of Soviet propaganda, contrasting with human life.
Eric Bulatov, "How Do I Know Where"
Early in his creative career, Erik Bulatov developed a theory of the interaction between a painting and space. According to this theory, a painting consists of two mutually exclusive parts: the real plane — the "picture plane" — on which a word is most often placed; and a second part — the space behind or in front of that plane, imagined by the artist himself. The word on the painting either stands as a barrier to the imagined space, "not letting" the viewer into the painting — or, conversely, acts as a linking element between the painting and the viewer.
Thus the master seeks not to merge these parts but to oppose them to each other. At the junction of this conflict the necessary nerve arises, and the meaning of the painting is born — the social environment that affects human perception has limits, while freedom exists beyond borders.
Eric Bulatov, "Clouds Are Growing"
"My work is quite different from pop art and socialist art. They tried to prove that social reality is the only thing we have, the only reality. Everything else simply doesn't matter. But I always wanted to prove that social space is limited, it has a boundary, and freedom is always beyond that boundary."
Eric Bulatov, "Black Evening, White Snow"
In 1988, after a series of major solo exhibitions in Europe and participation in the Venice Biennale, Bulatov received international recognition. He was then called the "Perestroika artist" and was named UNESCO's Artist of the Year. Many of the master's works were acquired by European museums and private collections.
Eric Bulatov, "I Live On"
From 1989 Erik Bulatov lived with his wife in New York, and in 1992 he moved to Paris, where he lives and works to this day. Occasionally he returns to Russia with exhibitions. For example, in 2003 the Tretyakov Gallery hosted an exhibition of the artist's graphic works. Three years later, in the same venue, there was a retrospective exhibition of his most famous works.
Eric Bulatov, "Freedom"
In 2015 the master painted the now legendary work "Freedom." The patron this time was the Yeltsin Center. The painting becomes a window into a bright heavenly space. The plane of the word recedes into the depth of the sky and has a strong compositional placement on the canvas, yet still appears alien and deliberate. The painting demonstrates to viewers that free people do not need the slogan "Freedom"; it exists a priori.
Eric Bulatov, "I Live—I See"
In addition to paintings, the artist writes books; in 2006 Erik Bulatov's book "I Live On" was published. In it the master set out his views on the purpose of art and reflected on the value of creativity in the modern world.
"Glory to the CPSU" — it would seem completely Soviet, and for some reason forbidden. So there must be some irony here, something like that, but what — it's unclear. Because there is no irony when you look: an ordinary poster. In fact, for me the only meaning of this work was the spatial character of the two elements — the sky and the letters. On one hand, the red aggressive letters, formally they are written across the sky, and that was exactly what our progressive lads accused me of at the time: how could you write those terrible letters across the Russian sky? But the point was that I tried in every way to show that the letters are not glued on, not tied to the sky, and there is a large distance between them. That is, they exist separately from each other. It's not impossible to see this. You just need to pay attention; your eye shows that they exist separately. And since they exist separately, each has its own life. The clouds move, and the letters stand motionless; they own this whole world, they strike out at us. But on the other side, behind them — the sky, there is another space. And they do not let us into it; they close that sky off from us. That's the whole point, it's a very simple thing, but for some reason no one understood it. Abroad this was much easier to perceive. If a viewer, like our Russian, does not look but simply reads, "ah, this is a political poster, understood," and moves on. But if he looks, and does not read, he sees something else here. All my paintings are built on spatial meaning. The space of our life, the space of art, the space of freedom and unfreedom, social space. In this confrontation lies the meaning.
Eric Bulatov, "Glory to the CPSU"
The artist is currently in a period of particularly large-scale works of art. For example, the mural "Stop-Go and the Barn in Normandy" with a total area of 2,500 square meters became the largest painted work by Erik Bulatov in the open air. The work was created in honor of the 10th anniversary of the "Art-Ovrag" festival with the support of the "OMK-Participation" foundation and is presented in the Industrial Street Art Park of the Vyksa Metallurgical Plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Eric Bulatov, "Stop-Go and the Barn in Normandy"
"Both paintings represent a maximal contrast. In one case it is a spatial contrast (stop — go, statics — dynamics), in the other case — a contrast of light and darkness. I want to show that these contrasting concepts do not have to negate each other but can, on the contrary, cooperate, forming a kind of unity."
Eric Bulatov, "It's Not So Scary"
Despite the various forms of expression, the artist himself considers all his works to be paintings. It's just that some of them work with real, rather than imagined, space.
Erik Vladimirovich Bulatov's paintings are beloved and recognizable worldwide. They are often exhibited in museums and at contemporary art auctions. For example, at a Phillips auction the work "Soviet Space" sold for approximately $1.6 million, and "Revolution — Perestroika" was sold for one million dollars, making Bulatov one of the most expensive contemporary Russian artists.
