Eric Bulatov: pictures. Features of style and creativity of the artist

Bulat Eric Vladimirovich, whose paintings are known throughout the world, - a modern Russian artist, whose name is more associated with the direction of social art.

Recognize, popular, in demand

The works of this man were exhibited in Paris, Louvre, London, Monte Carlo. What is the reason for such popularity and relevance? First of all, we note that the author's paintings are oversaturated with the symbolism, filed in encrypted form, and therefore recognizable all over the world and enjoy great success at the leading auction of contemporary art. So, the picture "Soviet space" was sold for 1.74 million dollars, and two more works on the themes of the Soviet era - one million dollars for each. Today, Bulatov is one of the most expensive contemporary artists.

Bulatov's artistic handwriting

Eric Bulatov, whose paintings are especially in demand outside of Russia, is a native of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). His father, Vladimir Borisovich, was killed at the front, his mother - Polish, who illegally emigrated to Russia at the age of 15. Behind Bulatov Art Institute, which he graduated in 1958. The creative method of this artist is recognizable and characteristic: his works combine a posterized text snatched from the context of Soviet realities, and a figurative component, most often borrowed from the mass press. As a result, the artist manages to illustrate in an extremely accessible way the supersaturated reality of the symbolism of Soviet propaganda, which is on the verge of a fracture, rushing from side to side and stumbling upon dead ends and long-lived meaningless slogans.

Paintings by Eric Bulatov

Many works of the master of the brush contain an allusion to landscapes with paths-roads stretching to infinity, into the distance. However, in his paintings, roads lead to a dead end, blocking the wall from the red carpet (the canvas "Horizon"), a huge stand depicting Lenin (Krasikova Street), the Kremlin ("I live-see"). Fine metaphorical, understandable to the viewer, Eric Bulatov seeks to further strengthen the symbolism of color (social-red closes the passage in the spatial-spiritual blue) and text inclusions ("Glory of the CPSU", "Entrance"). The edge of despair and the limit of despair, Eric Bulatov, whose paintings were not in demand at an early stage of his work, portrayed in the work "The Program" Time ", as if reproducing a photo from the magazine" Ogonek ": an elderly woman looks on television news, listens to I. Kirillov. The natural aspiration of an old lonely person to communicate, even a fictitious one, is everyday everyday widespread situation of ideological intoxication of a person of Soviet time.

Basically, Bulatov's paintings are a word written in block letters, and space. The press, the huge font, its newspaper style - the author's desire to express the word over which the person thinks, savoring it, living with the understanding of the presence of that 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" works of the artist

Artist Eric Bulatov, whose paintings are documentary evidence of the Soviet period, 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 ernichanya, parody, but are cold-detached statements, without a hint of any condescension. And the point here is not in the person of the artist and his subjective opinion, but in the intention to show a public stance on the events of a bygone era, to force the viewer to look at his former life with other 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 Soviet power, and this act can not be called a flight: Eric took advantage of the opportunity to earn his own skill. In addition, in Russia his work was not in demand, so at one time he had to earn money by illustrating books for children (Charles Perrault, Cinderella, Malysh 1973). The author considers himself the Russian artist by education and education and European - by territorial location.

Bulatov - illustrator of children's books

The children's publishing house Eric Bulatov, whose paintings are mostly devoted to the Soviet era, fell under the patronage of the artist Ilya Kabakov. Together with Oleg Vasiliev (friend and associate Bulatov), he tried to portray the fairy-tale heroes exactly as they can draw a child's imagination, while trying not to lose sensitivity to the fairy tale and to perceive it through the eyes of the child.

Currently, Erik Bulatov lives with his family in France, in Paris, which, however, does not prevent him from counting Moscow as his native and beloved city, where, in fact, he started his exhibition activities. The first exhibition of his works took place in 1957. Since 1992, he works mainly in Paris. Although Russia is the founder of social art visits quite often. So, let's discuss in more detail what Eric Bulatov, the artist, wants to tell the world.

Pictures, photos, people

Creativity Bulatov can be divided into the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The works of the Soviet period are characterized by a desire to go beyond the social space, the boundaries of which are not clear, nor is it clear how to overcome them. The post-Soviet period is the time when these boundaries are overcome, and the problems, changing the character, become different, more existential.

In addition to social-art themes in the works of Eric Bulatov, the theory of the interaction of space and pictures is traced. Visual thinking about the dialogue of the viewer and art is reflected in the canvas "Louvre. The Mona Lisa. " The hypothetical visitors of the Louvre, reminiscent of a crowd of old Soviet newspapers, purple mass invade museum halls, obscuring their space - only the mysterious, somewhat sarcastic smile of Mona Lisa is visible. The question is rhetorical: is it possible to perceive art in conditions of aggressive, like red, noisy chaos?

Another work on the perception of artwork - "Painting and the audience," reproducing the famous work of Alexander Ivanov "The Appearance of Christ to the people." Cloth on the wall and the audience led by the guide magically transformed into a whole composition, a kind of installation.

"My tram leaves", "How the clouds go", "Black evening, white snow", "That's it and it" - as we see, Eric Bulatov, whose pictures are not ordinary and do not look like anyone else, uses in his works Different sets of phrases. Some words seem to run along the image: "Freedom" - over the blue sky, "Train" - on the rails, "My tram leaves" - after the late man ... It's amazing how the arrangement of letters and their inclination can convey the movement! And this is also the skill.

The role of works Bulatov in art

Pictures Eric Bulatov - the creator of images that have become visual universal models for Russian art - are for him a landmark. In his works, the artist raises questions relevant to the new art: the ratio of the image and words in the visual space, the definition of the viewer's position, the interaction of innovations and traditions. He - one of the few in Russia - can safely be called a reformer of world art in the second half of the 20th century. After many years, the paintings of Eric Bulatov do not lose relevance, their content, which served as the reason for the ban for display in Soviet times, is now also perceived with sharpness.