Erik Bulatov, a central figure in Russian contemporary art and co‑founder of Sots Art, has died in Paris at 92. Known for works that repurposed Soviet slogans—most famously Glory to the CPSU—he challenged state‑approved aesthetics and sold major works at international auction. He gained broad recognition after exhibiting at the 1988 Venice Biennale and later lived in New York and Paris.
Erik Bulatov, Pioneer of Sots Art and Moscow Conceptualism, Dies in Paris at 92
Erik Bulatov, a central figure in Russian contemporary art and co‑founder of Sots Art, has died in Paris at 92. Known for works that repurposed Soviet slogans—most famously Glory to the CPSU—he challenged state‑approved aesthetics and sold major works at international auction. He gained broad recognition after exhibiting at the 1988 Venice Biennale and later lived in New York and Paris.
11:21 PM, 11/10/2025Culture
Erik Bulatov, pioneer of Sots Art, dies in Paris at 92
Erik Bulatov, a leading figure in Russia's contemporary art scene and a co‑founder of the Sots Art movement, has died in Paris at the age of 92, the Russian Academy of Fine Arts told AFP. His wife confirmed the news.
"One of the founders of Moscow conceptualism and Sots‑Art passed away on Sunday in Paris," an academy spokesperson said.
Bulatov rose to prominence for paintings that juxtaposed bright, familiar Soviet slogans and typography with open skies and everyday backdrops, producing an ironic and often disquieting commentary on official Soviet visual culture. His work stood in deliberate contrast to the solemn, doctrinal art promoted by the state.
His best‑known canvas, Glory to the CPSU — the slogan rendered in large red letters against a clear blue sky — became emblematic of his practice. That painting was sold at auction in London for approximately $2.2 million in 2008.
Sots Art, the movement Bulatov helped originate, drew inspiration from Western Pop Art by repurposing mass imagery and slogans, but it reframed those devices to interrogate Soviet ideology and public language. Though his ironic visual language made him a central figure among Moscow’s intellectual and underground art circles, Bulatov remained relatively little‑known outside those circles until the late 1980s.
Born in 1933 in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) into a family of committed communists, Bulatov trained at art school and initially worked as an illustrator for children’s books. He later helped form the Sretensky Boulevard collective, aligned with the broader Moscow Conceptualists—artists who challenged official Soviet aesthetics and censorship.
During a period of late‑Soviet liberalisation his work gained wider exposure; a high‑profile presentation at the Venice Biennale in 1988 brought him international recognition. After that breakthrough he moved first to New York and later settled in Paris, where he continued to live and work.
Bulatov’s influence on contemporary Russian art endures: his bold use of language and public text reshaped how later generations considered the relationships between state power, language and visual representation.