Early Life and Formation

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1904, Bulman drew cartoons for his high school yearbook and worked briefly as a newspaper cartoonist in Chicago. He returned to Grand Rapids to join the family manufacturing business and continued to draw while developing his painting practice. Largely self-taught, he took short courses at Ox-Bow in Saugatuck and studied with Eric Lundgren at the Norton Art Gallery in West Palm Beach.

Findlay Galleries records that Bulman exhibited with the Society of Independent Artists in New York in 1937. He later spent time at the Woodstock Art Colony, where he befriended the artist Adolf Dehn. Lynden Sculpture Garden identifies Dehn’s travels in Haiti as a possible early influence on Bulman’s interest in the country.

Palm Beach and the American South

Bulman began spending winters in Palm Beach around 1946 and showed regularly at Worth Avenue Gallery. He traveled through Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama, painting scenes of African American life in the segregated South. These works helped bring him national attention. In 1952, Newsweek reproduced a Florida beach scene alongside a painting of a Haitian bus.

Haiti and the Caribbean

Bulman first visited Haiti in March 1952 and traveled to other Caribbean islands during the decade. Houses with elaborate woodwork, village gatherings, and boats crowded with passengers became recurring subjects. His paintings drew on observed details and arranged them into imagined scenes, with humor often emerging from the way figures occupy a shared space.

The Jungle Paintings

During the 1960s and 1970s, Bulman made the jungle a setting for increasingly elaborate fantasies. Alongside Rousseau, Findlay identifies Old Master painting as an influence. Regal figures and wild animals share the same dense foliage, and the contrast between courtly dress and tropical surroundings gives these scenes much of their wit.

Exhibitions and Legacy

Bulman held a solo exhibition at Grand Central Art Galleries in New York in 1955 and later exhibited at Hammer Galleries. His work also reached audiences in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris. In 2012, Lynden Sculpture Garden revisited the role of Haiti in his practice in Haiti and the Midwestern Imagination.

Bulman died in 1978. The Grand Rapids Public Library preserves exhibition catalogues, clippings, and research materials relating to his career, along with his original work Grand Rapids, a Good Place to Live.

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