Erik Bulatov

Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York 

Original canvas which is buckling slightly in the corners. There is a line inherent to the canvas weave visible in the upper right quadrant. Similar lines are visible in other places, one running through Lenin's face. There are drip marks to the lower side of the poster as well as to the pavement below the poster. Some scattered fly spots are visible in places, most notably to the coat of the woman in the foreground. There is a light layer of surface dirt. A minor scratch is visible in the lower right near the right edge, and there are a couple of scratches to the tote bag. The edges show some minor abrasions. Inspection under UV light does not reveal any obvious signs of restoration. Unframed.
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‘My work is about specific questions, specific problems. It is about arresting a moment in time, about the significance of the visual signs in the world around us, about the way that to name some thing or some moment is to make it real’ (Erik Bulatov, September 1991). Of all the moments to try to arrest and make real, the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing unreality of the early 1990s must have been a compelling one for an artist who had so often explored the disconnects of Soviet life in his work.

An influential leader of the unofficial art movement, his imagery revolves around the conflict between surfaces and space as a reflection of the genuine conflict between Soviet reality and ideology, truth and falsehood, freedom and fear. He would create illusory objects, placing them in an illusory expanse – in this case, Lenin. Painted in the plain reds and blues so characteristic of Bulatov, the poster sparks all of these tensions with the added dimension of historical perspective which the contemporary viewer now brings to the painting, an additional quarter century of experience to that of the old lady passing by. This pivotal moment in time held all the promise of another structure, the alternative and possible way out which Bulatov had lamented:

‘I think that the worst thing that Soviet propaganda has done, forgetting the lies and the nonsense, is to have persisted in brainwashing us into believing that the social world we inhabit is the only reality. There is nothing else. Whether you like it or not, you have to adapt yourself. This is the way it is. Possibly there is another structure, beyond the borders, which is hostile to us. For years they inculcated in us the idea that there is no alternative, that the whole world is a prison, that there is no possibility of escape and that it has always been like that. Therefore art became a necessity for me, as it offered a possible way out.’ (E.Bulatov, Adaptation of Negation and Socialist Realism, Ridgefield, 1990).