Erik Bulatov

Erik Bulatov Vladimirovich (Russian Эрик Владимирович Булатов; * September 5, 1933 in Sverdlovsk ) is a Russian painter.

Life and work

Bulatov studied from 1947 to 1952 at the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow and graduated from there ( 1952-1958 ). He turned very early abstract painting, found in the 1960s in the confrontation with the Russian constructivism into his own visual language, which combines hyper- realistic illustration with signs and symbols.

Dealing with iconography and insignia of socialist realism is often ironic and often works with multiple image planes. Realistic depictions of people, landscapes, or urban scenes are set in relation to words and symbols, with font, icon and image sense complement or contradict each other. Since him the chance to work as a painter, was commissioned in the Soviet Union, he illustrated for example storybooks. Only with the perestroika, the Bulatov course also processed ironically, his work was recognized. Recent work shows that Bulatov has received critical look at social conditions.

His images were to November 2006 is shown in a retrospective of the New Tretyakov Gallery ( on Krymskiy Val ), which should secure him the long-deserved recognition in Russia. The majority of the works on display there, however, include museums in the West, only a few have been purchased by private collectors or the Moscow Contemporary Art Fund. He currently lives with his wife in Paris.

2009/2010 is Bulatov, among others, with his work perestroika in 1989 at the Kunsthalle Wien in a collective exhibition in 1989. End of History or Beginning of the Future? represented. Erik Bulatov is represented by the gallery ARNDT in Berlin and Galerie Piece Unique, Paris.