Dmitrii Bulanov (Russian, 1898–1942)

Following a brief attempt to study law in Petrograd—present-day St. Petersburg, named Petrograd from 1914 to 1924 and Leningrad from 1924 to 1991—Bulanov switched to art. In 1918, he enrolled at the Petrograd Free State Educational Workshops (PeGOSKhUM), which had been formed after the abolishment of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. Bulanov studied at PeGOSKhUM for about two years under, among others, the major avant-garde artist Jean Pougny (Russian, born Ivan Puni, 1892–1956).

Bulanov began his professional artistic career when he was hired as an instructor at IZO Narkompros (The Fine Arts Department of the People’s Commissariat of Education). In 1920, officials of ROSTA, the Russian Telegraph Agency, appointed Bulanov Head of the Propaganda Department of the southern Russian city of Nikolaev and the surrounding region. Bulanov continued to work for IZO Narkompros until 1923, when he returned to Petrograd.

Upon his return to Petrograd in 1923, Bulanov took on various government roles simultaneously and was also appointed Head of the Art Department of the journal Zhizn’ iskusstva (Life of Art). In August 1926, he became Art Director of the State Advertising Agency (Gosudarstvennoe Biuro reklam) of Leningrad’s Department of Communal Services (Gubotkomkhoz), for which he designed various posters. Beginning in 1928, he produced brochures and posters for the Leningrad Zoo. These posters were so well received that Bulanov employed assistants to help implement his ideas. In the 1920s, Bulanov also produced social and political posters for International Red Aid (MOPR) and children’s books for various publishing houses.

The very whimsy and irony that set Bulanov’s work apart from his peers, and which appeals to us today, earned him the label of “formalist.” Falsely accused of fomenting anti-Soviet propaganda, Bulanov was arrested in 1941, and died in prison the following year.


Posters

Poster: Vsia reklama v tramvaiakh pereshla iz vedeniia sevpechati (All Advertising on the Trams has been Transferred from the Sevpechat’), 1926
Lithograph
23 11/16 x 16 3/4” (60.2 x 42.5 cm)

Poster: Nasha tsel’: podniav kul’turnyi uroven’ rabochego, priblizit’ mirovuiu revoliutsiiu (Our Goal: To Make a World Revolution Reality by Raising the Cultural Level of a Worker), 1927
Lithograph
37 x 25 7/8” (94 x 65.7 cm)

Poster: Zheleznodorozhnik pomni: bespereboinye perevozki—osnova uspeshnogo vypolneniia piatiletki narodnogo khoziaistva v chetyre goda (Railroad Worker: Remember that Uninterrupted Shipping Operations are the Foundation of the Successful Fulfillment of the Five-Year Plan of the National Economy in Four Years), 1931
Lithograph
40 x 27 3/4" (101.6 x 70.5 cm)

Poster: Uznikam kapitala—nasha bratskaia pomoshch! (Our Fraternal Help to Prisoners of Capital!), 1927
Lithograph
28 x 20 3/4” (71 x 52.7 cm)

Poster: Paevaia kopeika—kooperativnyi rubl’ berezhet (Shared Kopeck Saves the Cooperative Ruble), 1930
Lithograph
29 1/8 x 41 3/8” (74 x 105.1 cm)

Poster: Piatiletka kadrov obshchestvennogo pitaniia (Five-Year Plan Targets for Training of Specialists for Public Canteen System), 1931
Lithograph
28 1/8 x 40 1/2” (71.4 x 102.9 cm)

Poster: Reklama v tramvae chitaetsia ezhednevno millionom liudei (Tram Advertisements are Read Daily by Millions of People), 1926
Lithograph
24 x 30 1/4” (61 x 76.8 cm)

Poster: Zoologicheskii sad: Zoosad popolnen redkimi ekzempliarami zverei (Zoo: The [Leningrad] Zoo Has Been Replenished with Rare Specimens of Wild Animals), 1927
Lithograph
21 x 28 7/16” (53.3 x 72.2 cm)

Poster: Pomoshch’ bortsam revoliutsii—luchshii venok na mogilu parizhskikh kommunarov (Helping the Revolutionary Fighters is the Best Wreath on the Grave of the Paris Communards), 1928
Lithograph
29 5/16 x 22” (74.5 x 55.9 cm)

Poster: Zoosadom poluchena novaia bol’shaia partiia zverei (The [Leningrad] Zoo Has Just Received a Large New Group of Wild Animals), 1930
Lithograph
41 1/4 x 28 1/2” (104.8 x 72.4 cm)

 

Book Design

Book cover design: A. Kholodov, Svistul’kiny zhenikhi (Penny Whistle’s Grooms), 1925 (published in 1926)
Gouache on paper
11 1/16 x 8 3/4" (28.1 x 22 cm)

The works shown here represent only a selection from the collection. Please contact us for further inquiry.