Erik Bulatov

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Vladimirovich and the family name is Bulatov.

Erik Vladimirovich Bulatov (Russian: Эрик Владимирович Булатов; 5 September 1933 – 9 November 2025) was a Russian artist, who was raised in Moscow. His father was a communist party official who died in World War II at Pskov, and his mother emigrated from Białystok, Poland at age 15 in 1922. Bulatov's works are in the major public and private collections in Europe, Russia, and United States. In 2008 Bulatov became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts. In 2015 he was made the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.^[1]

Erik Bulatov
Эрик Булатов
Bulatov in 2018
Born	(1933-09-05)5 September 1933 Kazan, Russia
Died	9 November 2025(2025-11-09) (aged 92)
Alma mater	Moscow Surikov Institute
Occupation	Artist
Awards	Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Order of Friendship

Early life

Education

Bulatov was born in Sverdlovsk to Vladimir Borisovich Bulatov (1901-1944) and Raisa Pavlovna Shvarts (1907–1986), a stenographer. He studied painting at the Surikov Art Institute in Moscow, graduating in 1958. He began working as a children’s book illustrator with friend and collaborator, Oleg Vassiliev for which he won numerous awards. Both artists were immensely influenced by Robert Falk and Vladimir Favorsky two artists of the early-twentieth century Russian avant-garde.

Sretensky Boulevard Group

Bulatov in 2006

In the 1960s Bulatov formed the Sretensky Boulevard Group with Ilya Kabakov, Edik Steinberg, Oleg Vassiliev, Vladimir Yankilevsky, and Viktor Pivovarov. Named by a Czech historian for the block on which they lived, the group often met at Kabakov's to discuss and show their work as they were not permitted to do so in "official" settings. This group was more of an association of like-minded artists rather than a school with similar stylistic tendencies.

Through the Sretensky Boulevard Group, Bulatov became a prominent member of the loosely affiliated Moscow Conceptualists. This group, related ideologically rather than stylistically, has defined the "Moscow School" of contemporary Russian art as it is known today.

Style

"Mozart", 1991

It is thought that Bulatov worked in sots art^[2] style. "Bulatov's paintings are large, colorful, realistic images of landscapes, skies, urban settings, and people, many of which are painted over and partially obscured by wry words or phrases. Metaphorically rich and poetic blue skies are overlaid with Russian texts that translate: 'Glory to the U.S.S.R.' or 'Trademark'. Lush, green landscapes toil under the labels 'Not To Be Leaned On' or 'Caution.' But Bulatov in one of his later interviews indicated that he had nothing to do with Sots Art. Sots Art according Bulatov is an irony. And irony is absent in his work.^[3]

Bulatov's subject matter is broad. Equally broad was his perception of the government's role in the classification and control of everything. Bulatov symbolized the government through his use of language as a system of order and control, the foundation of written law and constraint which he then plastered on every tree and rock. It is in this sense that Bulatov's paintings may take on a more universal accuracy and a more populist appeal. His emphasis on only the public and external aspects of life--the street, the land, the State television broadcast--reinforces the notion that one's thoughts and feelings are (still) one's own. the psychological and emotional are beyond the confines of words, language and law."^[4]

Career

Erik Bulatov was later in life represented by ARNDT Berlin, SKOPIA Geneva and pop/off/art gallery Moscow – Berlin.

Death

Bulatov died in Paris on 9 November 2025, at the age of 92.^[5][6]

Public collections

• The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
• The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States
• Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
• The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
• The Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMoMA), Moscow, Russia
• The National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, Russia
• The ART4.RU Museum of Contemporary Russian Art, Moscow, Russia
• The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, United States
• The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, United States