Erik Bulatov

Acquired directly from the artist in Moscow

Hong Kong, The Rotunda, Modern Art from Russia - Contemporary Masters, 8 January - 24 February 1991, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue

Original canvas. There is a pinhole in the top left corner and there is some abrasion to the edges. There is some light surface dirt and a few minor scuffs and surface scratches in places. UV light reveals no apparent signs of retuoching. Held in a simple wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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This powerful work was one of the last Bulatov painted in Moscow prior to his emigration to New York in 1989. Winter captures the ambivalent reactions to the immense social upheavals that were taking place during this key period of Perestroika and is as a superb 'snapshot of contemporary consciousness', as the artist often referred to his paintings (A.Erofeev, Eric Bulatov as Destroyer, Exhibition catalogue, The State Tretyakov Gallery, 2006, p.12). 'Strange as it may sound, a fresh wave of anxiety and restlessness has come over me', Bulatov admitted two years later. 'I don't experience feelings of freedom or joy as I did in the Khruschev era, but of fear. It was just this feeling of restlessness and fear that I wanted to transmit in the winter painting. This picture represents the dramatic essence of freedom. Anxiety. Something completely unknown and new awaits us" (E.Bulatov and A.Mitta, "Excerpts from a dialogue", Contemporary Russian Artists, Contepmorary Art Museum Luigi Pecci, Prato, 1990, p.42).

'Obstacles to the gaze' are an important theme in Bulatov's oeuvre - it is normally impossible to see the full expanse of his landscapes. In Winter, the obstacle is formed by the gentle curve of the hill which forces the viewer to construct the landscape and events beyond and bring his own consciousness to bear on the image.  The barrier that restricts view acts as a metaphor for society itself. 'In Russia this barrier had ideological foundations; in the West, the barrier could be cultural or material...' (B.Lorquin, Erik Bulatov: A Genealogy, 2006).

Winter is also a superb example of the three types of light that characterise his painting: 'the exterior light that strikes the work; the light originating from the picture itself; and a third kind of light which comes through the paint as if from behind the painting... In Winter, the whiteness generates contradictory feelings; it is coldness, death and light all at once' (B.Lorquin, Erik Bulatov: A Genealogy, 2006). A larger version of the present work was exhibited in The Centre Georges Pompidou in 1989 and he returned to the theme using coloured pencil in 1996.  This key Moscow Conceptualist canvas engages with the proposition of revolution and freedom in a remarkable manner. As Bulatov writes:  'I'm probably a one-theme artist... The theme of breaking through, the theme of freedom' (idem, p.201).