Wednesday, June 26th was the private opening of the Erik Bulatov exhibition for members of the Friends of the New National Museum of Monaco in the magnificent villa La Paloma.

Erik Bulatov, wife Natacha Boulatov & Vladimir Seminikhin, art collector and Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan in Monaco

Bulatov is one of the most important contemporary Russian living artists. He was born in Sverdlovsk and is celebrating his 80th birthday this year. he was raised in Moscow and now lives and works in Paris.  His father was a communist party official who died in World War II and his mother fled Poland at age 15 in support of the Russian Revolution. Bulatov’s works have appeared in nearly every important exhibition on 20th century Russian art, including the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, the Tretyakow-Galerie in Moscow, and Berlin. He was also featured in the Venice Biennale in 1988 and the Moscow Biennale.

'Hitchcock' and 'Our Time'

His particular modes of artistic expression are bound to a particular time and place, while also giving rise to multiple visual associations. It is characteristic of Bulatov’s manner of political commentary that he subversively unites opposing impulses.  Bulatov once said:

“The picture is different. It is the only reality I trust and believe. The world around us is too active, too unstable for us to maintain any true belief in it; everything is in a state of flux, everything is changing. Only the picture is immutable.”

Erik Bulatov - Self Portrait

The exhibition will be open to the public from Friday, June 28th through Sunday, September 29th, 2013. Access will be free on Friday June 28 from 11:00 till 19:00hs.

Photos by Celina Lafuente de Lavotha