1933-2025

Russian artist, one of the founders of Social Art. He was born in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) in 1933. His father, Vladimir Borisovich, came from Saratov and was a party member (joined in 1918). He died at the front in 1944. His mother came from Bialystok, Poland, and illegally emigrated to Russia when she was 15. Three years later, she got a job as a stenographer, despite not knowing Russian at the time (she spoke Polish and Yiddish only). According to Eric Bulatov, his father believed he would become an artist for some reason. In 1958, he graduated from the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow. From 1959 to 1960, he worked at Detgiz, a children's publishing house, with Kabakov and Vasiliev. His exhibition debut was in Moscow in 1957 and he has since been exhibiting internationally. Bulatov's distinctive and recognizable creative approach is the juxtaposition of poster text taken out of context from Soviet reality with a figurative component (most often landscapes borrowed from mass media). As a result, he manages to illustrate the absurdity of a reality oversaturated with symbols of Soviet propaganda in a highly accessible manner. In addition to his social artworks, Bulatov developed a theory on the interaction between painting and space in his earlier works. The influence of Falk can be seen in these works, which represent a significant stage in his career and are invaluable in the history of art. Bulatov's work is constantly being auctioned off at contemporary art auctions. For example, at the Phillips auction, his work "Soviet Space" sold for approximately 1.6 million dollars. Two more paintings on Soviet themes, including "Revolution - Perestroika," were also sold for one million dollars each, making Bulatov one of the most expensive Russian contemporary artists.