Bulatov Eric Vladimirovich, whose paintings are known all over the world, is a contemporary Russian artist, whose name is more associated with the direction of social art.
Recognizable, popular, sought after
The works of this man were exhibited in Paris, the Louvre, London, Monte Carlo. What is the reason for such popularity and demand?
First of all, we note that the canvases of the author are oversaturated with symbols filed in an encrypted form, and therefore are recognizable all over the world and enjoy great success at the leading auction of contemporary art. So, the painting “Soviet space” was sold for 1.74 million dollars, and two more works on the themes of the Soviet era - a million dollars for each. Today Bulatov is one of the most expensive artists of our time.
Artistic style of Bulatov
Eric Bulatov, whose paintings are especially in demand outside of Russia, is a native of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). His father, Vladimir Borisovich, died at the front, his mother is a Polish girl who illegally emigrated to Russia at the age of 15. Behind Bulatov's Art Institute, which he graduated in 1958. The creative method of this artist is recognizable and characteristic: his works combine a poster text taken from the context of Soviet realities and a figurative component, most often borrowed from the mass media. As a result, the artist manages to illustrate in a very accessible way the oversaturated reality of the symbols of Soviet propaganda, the absurdity of reality, which is on the verge of a fracture, rushing from side to side and stumbling into dead ends and long-lived meaningless slogans.
Paintings by Eric Bulatov
Many of the master’s works contain an allusion to landscapes with paths and roads stretching to infinity into the distance. However, in his paintings, roads lead to a dead end, blocked by a wall from the red carpet ("Horizon" canvas), a huge stand depicting Lenin ("Krasikova Street"), and the Kremlin ("I live-see"). Eric Bulatov strives to further enhance the visual metaphoricality understood by the viewer with the symbolism of color (social red closes the passage in spatially spiritual blue) and text inclusions (“Glory to the CPSU”, “Entrance”). Eric Bulatov, the edge of despair and the limit of despair, whose paintings at the early stage of his work were not in demand, was portrayed in the program “Time”, as if reproducing a photo from the magazine “Ogonyok”: an elderly woman watches news on TV, listens to I. Kirillov. The natural desire of an old lonely person to communicate, even fictitious, is an everyday everyday common situation of ideological intoxication of a person of the Soviet era.
Basically, Bulatov’s paintings are a word written in block letters and space. Printability, huge font, his newspaper style - the author’s desire to express the word that a person thinks, relishing it, living with the understanding of it’s presence in his life, but not yet fully aware of the role that it plays in it. This expresses protest and the desire for freedom.
"Soviet" artist
The artist Eric Bulatov, whose paintings are documentary evidence of the Soviet period, which has sunk into oblivion, is popular outside of Russia: his works are present at all foreign exhibitions of Russian art.
It is worth noting that Bulatov’s works do not contain fussing, parody, but represent coldly distant statements, without a hint of any condescension. And the point here is not the person of the artist and his subjective opinion, but the intention to show a public position on the events of a bygone era, to make the viewer look at the past life with different eyes, as if from the outside.
Russian foreign artist
Eric Bulatov is an artist whose biography is more connected with work abroad, where he left after the fall of the power of the Soviet Union, and this act can not be called flight: Eric took advantage of the opportunity to earn his own skill. Moreover, his works were not in demand in Russia, so at one time he had to earn extra money by illustrating books for children (Charles Perrault “Cinderella”, publishing house “Malysh” 1973). The author considers himself a Russian artist by education and upbringing and a European artist by territorial location.
Bulatov - illustrator of children's books
Eric Bulatov, a children's publishing house, whose paintings are mostly devoted to the Soviet era, got the patronage of the artist Ilya Kabakov. Together with Oleg Vasiliev (Bulatov’s friend and colleague), he tried to portray fairy-tale heroes exactly as the children's imagination can draw them, while trying not to lose sensitivity to the fairy tale and perceive it through the eyes of a child.
Currently, Eric Bulatov lives with his family in France, in Paris, which, however, does not prevent him from considering Moscow to be his native and beloved city, where, in fact, he began his exhibition activities. The first exhibition of his works took place back in 1957. Since 1992, he works mainly in Paris. Although the founder of social art visits Russia quite often. So, let's discuss in more detail what the artist Eric Bulatov wants to tell the world about.
Pictures, photos, people
Bulatov’s work can be divided into the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The works of the Soviet period are characterized by a desire to go beyond a social space, the borders of which are incomprehensible, as well as it is not clear how to overcome them. The post-Soviet period is the time when these boundaries are overcome, and the problems, changing their character, become different, more existential.
In addition to Sots-Art topics, Eric Bulatov's work traces the theory of the interaction of space and paintings. Visual thinking about the dialogue between the viewer and art is displayed in the painting “The Louvre. Gioconda. " Hypothetical visitors to the Louvre, resembling a crowd from old Soviet newspapers, invade the museum halls with a purple mass, obscuring the space - only a mysterious, somewhat sarcastic smile of Mona Lisa is visible. The rhetorical question: is it possible to perceive art in conditions of aggressive, like red color, noisy chaos?
Another work on the perception of artwork is “The Picture and the Spectators”, reproducing the famous work of Alexander Ivanov “The Appearance of Christ to the People”. The canvas on the wall and the audience, led by the guide magically transform into a solid composition, a kind of installation.
“My tram leaves”, “How the clouds go”, “Black evening, white snow”, “That's it” - as we see, Eric Bulatov, whose paintings are extraordinary and not like anyone else, uses in his works different sets of phrases. Some words seem to run through the image: “Freedom” - across the blue sky, “Train” - along the rails, “My tram leaves” - after a late person ... It's amazing how the arrangement of letters and their tilt can convey movement! And this also has skill.
The role of Bulatov's works in art
The paintings of Eric Bulatov, the creator of images that have become visual universal models for Russian art, are landmarks for him. In his works, the artist raises issues relevant to the new art: the ratio of images and words in the visual space, the definition of the audience position, the interaction of innovations and traditions.
He - one of the few in Russia - can be safely called a reformer of world art of the second half of the 20th century. After many years, the paintings of Eric Bulatov do not lose their relevance, their content, which served as the reason for the ban on display in Soviet times, is now also perceived with acuteness.