Nonconformists of the Russian Counterpoint. Erik Bulatov: Freedom is Freedom
По русски / In Russian
In response to the comment...
Erik Bulatov. Freedom is Freedom. 1997-98
Contrary to the popular believe, the language or text paintings by Erik Bulatov could hardly be viewed as conceptual. His approach to art is traditional in a sense that its content is revealed through the properties of the picture, its plane, space, text, symbolic field, composition, etc. That, of course, is in discord with the program of classical conceptualism, presented for instance, in works by Joseph Kosuth or SolLevitt. In his paintings Bulatov follows Pop Art in his interest in text and language as a focus of everyday life. However, unlike pop artists, he is taken by possible connections of text meaning and picture properties. He learns how text interacts with image (or other text) through overlapping, forming new picture planes, going through it, fully covering the image or conflicting with it, and so on. He is tedious in his experiments just as was Georgio Morandi, who studied with scientific scrutiny the effects of light, air, object surface, composition in painting.
Bulatov's text paintings can be arbitrarily grouped as political, philosophical-poetical, and exploratory. His political works reflect on the dominant role of language of the state over public discourse (“Glory to KPSU”, “Unineously”). Here ideological idioms command real life images, gaining absolute control over the visual. It is achieved by the visual being fully covered with grid of words having political connotations. In philosophical-poetical works the text joins in with the image (of a blue sky), creating new sense of picture plane, rhythm, sense of direction (“Go”, “Freedom is Freedom”). In exploratory works statements are placed in invisible but sensible front plane of the visual, brutally interrupting its emotional free-flow by the violent nature of unrelated words (“Do Not Lean”, “Danger”).
Erik Bulatov. Go. 1975
[As an example, I will look at the work “Freedom is Freedom” from the point of the other two works, “Go” and “Unanimously”.
The work "Go" belongs to the aforementioned philosophical-poetical group. Placed in the limitless blue sky, the “go” is endowed with a monumental strength. It enters the visual through creation of its own independent plane. The verb “go” puts the picture in motion. In the infinity of the sky, otherwise rather practical word infinitely expands, obtains powerful connotations.
The "Freedom Is Freedom" is built upon the opposite effect. The word Freedom due to its spanless connotations stretches the piteous piece of heaven by creating its own disruptive picture plane. The visual overlaps the grid of words "Freedom is" creating extra tension. In the work "Unanimously", similar grid dominates image by covering it in its whole, while in the "Freedom Is Freedom" it acts as a receded background, broken by Freedom. The "Freedom is" limits and objectifies a paradoxical openness of the word "freedom". Hence, it gets broken by it, bringing about the genuine sense of liberation.]
Erik Bulatov. Unanimously. 1987
Now, back to the comment mentioned in the epigraph. The work "Freedom is Freedom" does not seem to bear any direct political connotations. For the analysis of whether Bulatov’s position with regard to Erofeev and Ter-Oganian affects his nonconformist image, one has to appeal to his political art.
Harshly criticizing Andrei Erofeev, Avdei Ter-Oganyan and other victims of the censorship of the past 12 years, Bulatov surprisingly incapable to evaluate their cases on the basis of the new state vocabulary revolving around the getting-out-of-line notion “extremism” or “inciting religious hatred”. He fails to admit that Russian curators, artists and unsuspecting general public are terrorized by the new ideological idiom. It targets artists own freedom, as well as the freedom of others, forced to consider Erofeev’s and Ter-Oganian’s gestures as a crime against the state, far beyond the field of art, where these gestures out to be judged.
Why Bulatov does not acknowledge this? Perhaps, because he has no reason to dispute the authorities which at last recognized him as an artist, and added his name to a certain historical archive. The fight is won. Ironically, Erofeev himslef made this victory possible - at large, and in particular, when he organized Bulatov’s first Moscow retrospective at the State Tretyakov Gallery in 2006.
Another related concept, presented in all its glory in the recent heartbreaking treatise by Yekaterina Degot about bourgeois Russian show "Modernikon" in Italy, is entered discourse of power under the word “modernization. " Recently, it was well-commented by the Russian-born Nobel Prize winners in Physics, A. Geim and K. Novoselov, who retorted with the word "surrealism" the offer to come back, "modernize" the old Russia. "I аm not out of my mind to return back to Russia. I spent too much time there, fighting windmills. I am a scientist, not a fighter. I love to work and I can still do it, and therefore I will stay in Britain," - Mr. Geim said.
Julia Volfson