bulatov (1933) - SEM

ERIK
BULATOV
T
here is no doubt that Erik Bulatov is rooted in the
Soviet world – propaganda symbols and slogans from
everyday Soviet culture are regular features in his
paintings and drawings. Yet it would be too simple
to base an interpretation of his oeuvre solely on his
nationality, especially since he moved to Paris in 1990.
Nor can his latest works be seen merely as the results
of a Russian emigrant’s explorations on canvas; they
also address questions of depth, surface and light. His
2008 painting Je vis plus loin (ou Je continue à vivre),
for instance, shows a highly idiosyncratic disregard
for centricity. The top of the painting is dominated
by a cloudy, mother-of-pearl sky; the bottom half by
a landscape seen from a bird’s eye view. Between the
two is a line of white Cyrillic text. The characters have
two possible meanings in Russian: I am still alive and I
am not here, I am far away (from you), but I am alive.
The extreme one-point-perspective that stretches
the end of the text into the distance, and the fact
that the text is in Cyrillic and addresses a far-away
audience lead one to conclude that the painting is
(1933)
autobiographical. At the same time, the work attests
to an ongoing search for new ways of combining
naturalistic and typographic elements, iconographic
and semantic content, and of representing light.
Erik Bulatov’s works have appeared in nearly every
important exhibition on 20th century Russian art,
including RUSSIA! at the Guggenheim Museums
in New York (2005) and Bilbao (2006), and BerlinMoscow / Moscow-Berlin 1950–2000, TretyakowGalerie, Moskau (2003), and Martin-Gropius-Bau,
Berlin (2004), or Traumfabrik Kommunismus. Die
visuelle Kultur der Stalinzeit, Schirn Kunsthalle,
Frankfurt / Main (2003). He was also featured at the
43rd Venice Biennale (1988) and the Third Moscow
Biennale (2009). His solo exhibitions have appeared
at mamco – Musee d’art moderne et contemporain in
Geneva (2009/2010) and at the Musée d’Art Moderne
de la Ville de Paris (2007), at the kestnergesellschaft,
Hannover (2006),and the Tretyakow-Galerie, Moskau
(2003 and 2006).
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
1
Erik BULATOV
«O», 2008
35 x 34 x 4 cm
Crayon on paper
2
Erik BULATOV
HORIZONTALES III, 1966
140 x 140 cm
Oil on canvas
3
Erik BULATOV
L’EAU COULAIT, 2000
35 x 34 cm
Crayon on paper
4
Erik BULATOV
«O», 2008
26 x 35 x 4 cm
Crayon on paper
5
SEM-ART
20, avenue de la Costa
98000 - MONACO
Tel. : +377 97 70 50 70
Fax : +377 97 70 50 77
[email protected]
w w w. s e m - a r t . m c
RUSSIAN ART exhibition at SEM ART GALLERY
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