A Return and a Welcome
Mikhail Koulakov bears witness to the values of the modern painting tradition in the country of Mussorgsky, Kandinsky and Stravinsky.
Over the last 50 years, modern painters in Russia have been banned or kept in the background. At last, as is their right, they are free once again to move in the world of international art, with all their special sensitivity and imagination, their spontaneity and zest for life.
Koulakov's works play on the extreme freedom of composition where colours acquire the fullness of brass instruments, or the lighter sounds of violins, cellos, double basses and violas. His view of the pictorial field tends to towards music rather than the classic view of perspective or of cubo-futurism (the original synthesis created by Burljuk and Khlebnikov to interpret futurism and cubism).
In my view, for us Italians, Koulakov's work has a newness about it, a presence that reestablisbes the art of a great country within today's concept of Eurasia.
My warmest welcome to Mikhail Koulakov and my very best wishes.
Mikhail Koulakov bears witness to the values of the modern painting tradition in the country of Mussorgsky, Kandinsky and Stravinsky.
Over the last 50 years, modern painters in Russia have been banned or kept in the background. At last, as is their right, they are free once again to move in the world of international art, with all their special sensitivity and imagination, their spontaneity and zest for life.
Koulakov's works play on the extreme freedom of composition where colours acquire the fullness of brass instruments, or the lighter sounds of violins, cellos, double basses and violas. His view of the pictorial field tends to towards music rather than the classic view of perspective or of cubo-futurism (the original synthesis created by Burljuk and Khlebnikov to interpret futurism and cubism).
In my view, for us Italians, Koulakov's work has a newness about it, a presence that reestablisbes the art of a great country within today's concept of Eurasia.
My warmest welcome to Mikhail Koulakov and my very best wishes.
Piero Dorazio, 1996
" Usually arranged in series, and often in triptychs or poliptychs, Koulakov's paintings address on one hand space and on the other the eternal fashination with material..The din of flashing light permeates these surfaces, carried by the paint to an incandescent image, changeable, almost daring. Vortexes, eruptions, thunderbolts, chasms, loud cries, transmitted by the accelerated and vehement gesture, define on the page the strong and immanent figure. And the space is not longer tangible on the canvas but concretely projected in three dimensions. And other times the opposite...suddenly abandons the opulence and the ornamentation. And made bare and severe, it seeks adventure, improvisation, spacious dreams....But certainly he is a painter who by this very duality justifies the uniqueness which easily distances him from any generic academy and from any school....."
Fabrizio D'Amico, Instantaneousness of the Gesture, Rome 1991
Fabrizio D'Amico, Instantaneousness of the Gesture, Rome 1991
"...To my mind, Mikhail Koulakov is an almost legendary figure linked to the discovery of new art...His research is multiform; the consequences of a free automatic gesture are interrupted (or enriched) by the concept of preparatory meditation leading to revelation; the abstraction of the sign unites with lyrical figurativeness...By now a mature painter, Koulakov emphasizes the plastic techniques and the conceptual layouts that are so much part of his work, and refuses to indulge in infantile lyricism... The polyhedric technique, always a special feature of his art, becomes accentuated and is given more prominence in his later works; his calligraphic technique is refined, his paintings becomes more objective, the brush stroke and the structure seem to move on different paths an to co-exist in parallel spaces...
Leonid Bazanov, Koulakov, the outsider, Moscow 1993
Leonid Bazanov, Koulakov, the outsider, Moscow 1993
Koulkov, the Italian Years
To define the complexity of the artistic and cultural universe in which Koulakov acts, critics who have recently reviewed his works produced in Italy - for instance, Crispolti and D'Amico - have emphasized the continuous patterns involving his interest in the East, his links with the ancient figurative tradition in Russia, and his reflections on the methods of informal art and some of its derivatives. But in all this, and in other passages too, it is difficult to find a prevailing element since Koulakov's painting acts rather like a "container" for a wide variety of suggestions; this makes understanding it less immediate and direct than might appear at first. What is certain is that he belongs in every respect to that world of abstract-physical art which, during the course of time, has renewed itself by accepting external stimuli, reworking then through a rigorous internal sense of poetry: the gesture, knot and action are always subordinated to a search for self, to the definition of a mystical space (chiefly, space to think), situated at the apex of the Zen search for self - a discipline that Koulakov has always practised as a complementary activity to painting.
Even though he comes from the same cultural background as Kabakov, Boulatov, Komar and Melamid - whom Crispolti reviewed in preglasnost days in his brilliant series "unofficial prospects" - Koulakov has chosen a different position with respect to the avantgarde realistic-objectivist type. Rather, he is an artistpoet in the sense that the space and time of poetry carry a certain emphasis in his work; he concentrates on the classic nature of pictorial language, the problems posed by the medium of painting, from analysis to formal construction, from the dilution of movement by superimposing decorative patterns to the coded emphasis of his personal calligraphic trademark. Unlike the other ex-soviet avantgarde milieus, Koulakov's field of discussion is not the poetic aspect of reality, the limit of objectivity that takes on an ideological form as it unfolds, but rather his own interior space which he defends with firmness and discretion.
This is the sense that defines the stylistic precision of Koulakov's works from his so-called "Italian years", from 1978 till today, which he himself regards as the "third period" of his artistic commitment. The most interesting formal innovation concerns a new permeability in Koulakov's painting with respect to a landscape that has rather special characteristics - lower Umbria, around the Amelia district, where his art attempts a fresh interpretation of the informal universe by means of direct observation that is more lyrical, more relaxed in terms of space, and more meditative than the surrounding countryside. In other words, he analyzes the prevailing theme of "informal" Europe stirred by the wind of change that came from American action painting in the 1950s. The tangled mass within a brief poetic space as in Wols, and the movement and dripping action in Pollock, become the two main coordinates with which to investigate a gentler style of painting linked to the earth, whose dramatic features are softened by a deep sentiment of nostalgia. Koulakov takes inspiration from Burri's slashed materials, Mafai's experimentalism, and the knotted materials in Leoncillo's sculptures. This important exhibition of Koulakov's works at Moscow's Pushkin Museum provides an occasion for critical reflection on the new features that this artist has introduced in his most recent works. Beginning with "Physical Space" (1976-78) which, against a strong . background of informal Zen, makes one think mainly of Mathieu's rapid calligraphic strokes, where the two styles previously mentioned (European and American) come into contact at a pictorial level which emphasizes the movement of the brush as an immediate and automatic stroke. Or else, in slightly later paintings with the same title, one detects a sort of mysterious code which constitutes a primitive alphabetical system. Here, the key figure is the circle (and we are still within the mainstream of the Zen tradition) which defines the surroundings of a mental space wholly taken up with solitary meditation, against an extended monochromatic background. The most important works painted by Koulakov ten years later all carry oriental titles, such "Tao sign" (1988): here the colours burn brightly, the artist's liberty of expression seems to shake itself free of the image, which is clearly based on informal inspiration. In a certain sense, the painting has an "energetic" three-dimensional quality which both summarizes previous experiences and which returns to multiple stratification in order to weave the narrative warp and weft, overflowing and liberated once again, just as in the case of Joaquim Falco', the young Catalan artist.
As we said at the outset, contact with an extremely well-defined and communicative environment determines the style of painting; this is clearly evident in Koulakov's contemporary pictures such as "Evenings on the outskirts of Moscow" (1988): the painting is more romantic and evocative, and the influence of Italian landscape complicates the informal tradition which, in a sense, he still refers to. The recognition of this debt to Italy is more evident in a work such as "Protuberances" (1988) which shows his interest for multi-materialism; this involves the inclusion of "extraneous objects" from real life to create a fabric that is balanced between human drama at a high level, and the same at a rather more sentimental level. Another moment of extreme concentration in Koulakov's work is evident in his drawings on paper. Again there is the depiction of a free, almost magical space, where the movement of the line becomes one with the author's mark - like a signature or a monogram, which is included like a conventional reference code in his drawings and later paintings.
Finally, there is the renewed problem of moving way beyond two-dimensional painting in his most recent works, for instance the cycle entitled "Seasons" (1990-91), which exemplifies Koulakov's latest approach; that of not displaying pictures in pre-defined spaces, but rather, stimulating and challenging one to observe the painting from different, less conventional points of view.
To define the complexity of the artistic and cultural universe in which Koulakov acts, critics who have recently reviewed his works produced in Italy - for instance, Crispolti and D'Amico - have emphasized the continuous patterns involving his interest in the East, his links with the ancient figurative tradition in Russia, and his reflections on the methods of informal art and some of its derivatives. But in all this, and in other passages too, it is difficult to find a prevailing element since Koulakov's painting acts rather like a "container" for a wide variety of suggestions; this makes understanding it less immediate and direct than might appear at first. What is certain is that he belongs in every respect to that world of abstract-physical art which, during the course of time, has renewed itself by accepting external stimuli, reworking then through a rigorous internal sense of poetry: the gesture, knot and action are always subordinated to a search for self, to the definition of a mystical space (chiefly, space to think), situated at the apex of the Zen search for self - a discipline that Koulakov has always practised as a complementary activity to painting.
Even though he comes from the same cultural background as Kabakov, Boulatov, Komar and Melamid - whom Crispolti reviewed in preglasnost days in his brilliant series "unofficial prospects" - Koulakov has chosen a different position with respect to the avantgarde realistic-objectivist type. Rather, he is an artistpoet in the sense that the space and time of poetry carry a certain emphasis in his work; he concentrates on the classic nature of pictorial language, the problems posed by the medium of painting, from analysis to formal construction, from the dilution of movement by superimposing decorative patterns to the coded emphasis of his personal calligraphic trademark. Unlike the other ex-soviet avantgarde milieus, Koulakov's field of discussion is not the poetic aspect of reality, the limit of objectivity that takes on an ideological form as it unfolds, but rather his own interior space which he defends with firmness and discretion.
This is the sense that defines the stylistic precision of Koulakov's works from his so-called "Italian years", from 1978 till today, which he himself regards as the "third period" of his artistic commitment. The most interesting formal innovation concerns a new permeability in Koulakov's painting with respect to a landscape that has rather special characteristics - lower Umbria, around the Amelia district, where his art attempts a fresh interpretation of the informal universe by means of direct observation that is more lyrical, more relaxed in terms of space, and more meditative than the surrounding countryside. In other words, he analyzes the prevailing theme of "informal" Europe stirred by the wind of change that came from American action painting in the 1950s. The tangled mass within a brief poetic space as in Wols, and the movement and dripping action in Pollock, become the two main coordinates with which to investigate a gentler style of painting linked to the earth, whose dramatic features are softened by a deep sentiment of nostalgia. Koulakov takes inspiration from Burri's slashed materials, Mafai's experimentalism, and the knotted materials in Leoncillo's sculptures. This important exhibition of Koulakov's works at Moscow's Pushkin Museum provides an occasion for critical reflection on the new features that this artist has introduced in his most recent works. Beginning with "Physical Space" (1976-78) which, against a strong . background of informal Zen, makes one think mainly of Mathieu's rapid calligraphic strokes, where the two styles previously mentioned (European and American) come into contact at a pictorial level which emphasizes the movement of the brush as an immediate and automatic stroke. Or else, in slightly later paintings with the same title, one detects a sort of mysterious code which constitutes a primitive alphabetical system. Here, the key figure is the circle (and we are still within the mainstream of the Zen tradition) which defines the surroundings of a mental space wholly taken up with solitary meditation, against an extended monochromatic background. The most important works painted by Koulakov ten years later all carry oriental titles, such "Tao sign" (1988): here the colours burn brightly, the artist's liberty of expression seems to shake itself free of the image, which is clearly based on informal inspiration. In a certain sense, the painting has an "energetic" three-dimensional quality which both summarizes previous experiences and which returns to multiple stratification in order to weave the narrative warp and weft, overflowing and liberated once again, just as in the case of Joaquim Falco', the young Catalan artist.
As we said at the outset, contact with an extremely well-defined and communicative environment determines the style of painting; this is clearly evident in Koulakov's contemporary pictures such as "Evenings on the outskirts of Moscow" (1988): the painting is more romantic and evocative, and the influence of Italian landscape complicates the informal tradition which, in a sense, he still refers to. The recognition of this debt to Italy is more evident in a work such as "Protuberances" (1988) which shows his interest for multi-materialism; this involves the inclusion of "extraneous objects" from real life to create a fabric that is balanced between human drama at a high level, and the same at a rather more sentimental level. Another moment of extreme concentration in Koulakov's work is evident in his drawings on paper. Again there is the depiction of a free, almost magical space, where the movement of the line becomes one with the author's mark - like a signature or a monogram, which is included like a conventional reference code in his drawings and later paintings.
Finally, there is the renewed problem of moving way beyond two-dimensional painting in his most recent works, for instance the cycle entitled "Seasons" (1990-91), which exemplifies Koulakov's latest approach; that of not displaying pictures in pre-defined spaces, but rather, stimulating and challenging one to observe the painting from different, less conventional points of view.
Luca Beatrice, 1992
"...the uncontrollable running riot of the spontaneity of colour, already caracteristic of the early Russian avant-garde....The drive to express oneself gives way to the discovery of the truth , to the search of the absolute. This quest, like the aspiration to the material spontaneity of colour, is equally present in the conscience of the Russian avant-garde..."
Marina Bessonova, Koulakov and the abstract Art, Terni 1996
Marina Bessonova, Koulakov and the abstract Art, Terni 1996
..."Koulakov first emerged as an artist in 1960 with the series of very personal drawings entitled The birth of the Modern World and The War for Peace , produced in Leningrad in a Style of Surrealist gesture in the uninhibited confusion of human figures and faces against a background of free brushstrokes. The brushstrokes, automatic in its application, represented the result of an instinctive abstract Surrealism, while in the large works like Warriors or other figures the informal style of Koulakov was seen in lines and areas of large, spontaneous, colourful and instinctively effusive strokes of color with a strong suggestion of emotion. And in fact the informal style of Koulakov developed from the iconizing of the stroke itself, thick with paint and rapidly gesture. That interest in the imaginary nature of ancient Russian icons, which served as an influence during his formative period in the second half of the 1950s, reemerges as an informal gestural mark and provides the framework of the outlines of figures in the following years, for exemple in 1963 in Apocalypse, and again in 1967 in Cosmogony ..."
Enrico Crispolti, A voyage of spirit and sign from abstract surrealism to object constructions in space, Narni 1988
"...While working in Rome the artist gave vent to his imagination, not only strengthening the connection with his roots, but also looking towards the Far East, clearly an important component of Russian culture. Koulakov resolved the risk of loosing his identity when he moved from the place of his development and his earliest maturity by searching deeply within himself and finding a broarder perspective. Thus, paradoxically, after his arrival in Rome instead of Westernizing or selecting Western models of the avantgarde, the artist in a certain sense Easternized.Indeed, even if he brought to the Italian an Western European environment a cultural diversity, albeit always consistent with the common language of the avantgarde (primarily of stroke and gesture), in reality he developed within this environment a style which only his Russian past could have motivated. His view towards the East offered him an ideal place for the contemplative activity and the maximum spiritual density; with the suspended time of the pure event of spiritual epiphany. Koulakov's work does not represent only the joining of the Eastern and Western European Artistic culture but, through his own Russian Orientalizing, it represents within European artistic culture (a spontaneous recovery of the broadest traditional diemension), an acquisition of the Eastern dialogue (primarily based on the Zen behavior and philosophy)
..."
Enrico Crispolti Spiritually Revealing Gesture in the Works of Mikhail Koulakov , Moscow , 1990
Enrico Crispolti, A voyage of spirit and sign from abstract surrealism to object constructions in space, Narni 1988
"...While working in Rome the artist gave vent to his imagination, not only strengthening the connection with his roots, but also looking towards the Far East, clearly an important component of Russian culture. Koulakov resolved the risk of loosing his identity when he moved from the place of his development and his earliest maturity by searching deeply within himself and finding a broarder perspective. Thus, paradoxically, after his arrival in Rome instead of Westernizing or selecting Western models of the avantgarde, the artist in a certain sense Easternized.Indeed, even if he brought to the Italian an Western European environment a cultural diversity, albeit always consistent with the common language of the avantgarde (primarily of stroke and gesture), in reality he developed within this environment a style which only his Russian past could have motivated. His view towards the East offered him an ideal place for the contemplative activity and the maximum spiritual density; with the suspended time of the pure event of spiritual epiphany. Koulakov's work does not represent only the joining of the Eastern and Western European Artistic culture but, through his own Russian Orientalizing, it represents within European artistic culture (a spontaneous recovery of the broadest traditional diemension), an acquisition of the Eastern dialogue (primarily based on the Zen behavior and philosophy)
..."
Enrico Crispolti Spiritually Revealing Gesture in the Works of Mikhail Koulakov , Moscow , 1990
Sign and Materials
Mikhail Koulakov has found the centre at the world amongst the hills and valleys of Umbria surrounded by nature's generosity, in a place that is just far enough away to insulate one from the chaos of civilization, especially the sounds of people in a hurry, and where one is barely able to put up with the noise of tractors and threshing machines.
Silence. That is what his open-air meditation needs, from ground to sky, better still by night watching the moon. But artists such as Koulakov are citizens on the world. Their sky is that of Moscow or Vallicciano; what is important for him wherever he is, is to achieve harmony with infinity which he is part of.
This transcendental/bucolic dimension of Koulakov's present happy condition should not deceive us. In fact, he lives out his existence to the full, feeling himself 'to be part of the cosmos and not merely a tiny fragment of it. For him, as an artist and, citizen of the world, art has universal value to be watched over and passed on continuously through creativity and dialogue. His personality is complex like the research that he has been carrying out for more than thirty years and which continues in this Roman period (perhaps more accurately "Umbrian"). But, as we know, geographical location is completely unimportant for him; today he creates a synthesis through a sort of coagulation of expression. Retracing in broad outline the first steps of his long and varied career, one has to start from his early works - in all senses, not just chronological - in the mid 1950's in Moscow. Such an analysis has been carried out several times by Enrico Crispolti and more recently by Enrica Torelli Landini, as well as by the artist himself in the introduction to his first Italian show in Rome in 1973, and in a catalogue note for a 1988 show in Narni. His academic studies, followed immediately by his first painting activities, were fundamental steps in his development which still have a positive influence on his practical and material approach to art. In that early period, Koulakov studied RussianByzantine culture, especially icons, studying the almost magic process involved in their making. And the in-depth assimilation of such techniques and images provided an immediate liberation that led towards Pollock's action painting, only occasionally glimpsed in rare copies that circulated in Moscow at that time. So, it was this type of stroke and movement, only apparently different in approach, that unfolded and still unfolds in Koulakov's painting and sculpture. His subsequent periods in Leningrad and in Rome (since 1976) are none other than the more or less systematic exploration of his universe, marked by a wholly consistent approach. His recent activities in his new "buen retiro" in Vallicciano, following the normal period of adaptation, are clearly distinguished by the awareness of his maturity of expression, and move along the dual track of the brush stroke (used to form geometry and construction) and material-paint. These are complementary languages that are often integrated not only in substance but also in pictorial form, conjugating mainly in spatial dimensions which, however, are inherent in both forms of expression. From his earliest works, this informal gestuality differs from the automatic or mechanistic approach of action painting. It is mainly the result of meditation with transcendental overtones, and is therefore the image of space in which feelings and forces can be expressed. It's no chance that the dense brush stroke of material-paint sometimes moves slowly in search of form, in the romantic sense, especially in works with sacred themes. At other times, the substance of the paint is not sufficient to express the concept, particularly when the artist feels the need to emphasize dimensions; in such cases, he uses plaster which he moulds and paints to create bas-reliefs superimposed on the flat surfaces (but there are cases when he also uses unpainted plaster to divide or join areas of a picture).
The form is certainly not that of the extensive, and by no means secondary, collection of drawings in which the gestuality is often made up of schematic objects, sometimes using and elegant language with an oriental flavour. Rather, it is chiefly that of the geometrical composition made up of symbolic and often spatial elements. In this case the paintings are done on shaped supports bristling with tacks, or even become gothic-style constructions that seem to be trying to add a fourth dimension to the three they already have. These "sculptures" in particular display a constructivist vein harking back to Tatlin, with productivist tendencies developed in the Russian avantgarde movements, especially Rodcenko and Stephanova.
In a more general sense, Koulakov manages to express elements of oriental philosophy (particularly Zen) the basis of his original gestuality, with a more material western culture which is open to all kinds of experimental experience. Starting from different cultural origins therefore, this Russian artist has arrived at the universal culture of mankind, understood by all and encompassing everything. In the quiet countryside of the Umbrian hills, only physically removed from other geographical locations where he has found similar conditions in the past (maybe also in the future), in recent months he has produced a large-scale painting made up of several panels, similar to those of his early Muscovite period, now mentally recouped and also physically in terms of studio space available. The four seasons of the Umbrian Landscapes, in reality four meditations on the universal landscape, are on display together for the first time. They have been seen two at a time in Corciano at the "Artists in Umbria" exhibition, and in Toscolano at the "Fiera in festa" exhibition.
In this work, Koulakov has reached a high degree of synthesis in his research through a measured balance of meditative gestuality, the search for space, and chromatic urgency. Without in any way disparaging the other neoconstructivist experiences, still rich in symbols and signs, in which creativity frees itself in a sort of intelligent game between geometric shapes, different materials, and the informality of layers of material-paint without form, pure pictorial work on canvas (especially on a large scale) represents the high point of this artist's achievement in painting.
Mikhail Koulakov has found the centre at the world amongst the hills and valleys of Umbria surrounded by nature's generosity, in a place that is just far enough away to insulate one from the chaos of civilization, especially the sounds of people in a hurry, and where one is barely able to put up with the noise of tractors and threshing machines.
Silence. That is what his open-air meditation needs, from ground to sky, better still by night watching the moon. But artists such as Koulakov are citizens on the world. Their sky is that of Moscow or Vallicciano; what is important for him wherever he is, is to achieve harmony with infinity which he is part of.
This transcendental/bucolic dimension of Koulakov's present happy condition should not deceive us. In fact, he lives out his existence to the full, feeling himself 'to be part of the cosmos and not merely a tiny fragment of it. For him, as an artist and, citizen of the world, art has universal value to be watched over and passed on continuously through creativity and dialogue. His personality is complex like the research that he has been carrying out for more than thirty years and which continues in this Roman period (perhaps more accurately "Umbrian"). But, as we know, geographical location is completely unimportant for him; today he creates a synthesis through a sort of coagulation of expression. Retracing in broad outline the first steps of his long and varied career, one has to start from his early works - in all senses, not just chronological - in the mid 1950's in Moscow. Such an analysis has been carried out several times by Enrico Crispolti and more recently by Enrica Torelli Landini, as well as by the artist himself in the introduction to his first Italian show in Rome in 1973, and in a catalogue note for a 1988 show in Narni. His academic studies, followed immediately by his first painting activities, were fundamental steps in his development which still have a positive influence on his practical and material approach to art. In that early period, Koulakov studied RussianByzantine culture, especially icons, studying the almost magic process involved in their making. And the in-depth assimilation of such techniques and images provided an immediate liberation that led towards Pollock's action painting, only occasionally glimpsed in rare copies that circulated in Moscow at that time. So, it was this type of stroke and movement, only apparently different in approach, that unfolded and still unfolds in Koulakov's painting and sculpture. His subsequent periods in Leningrad and in Rome (since 1976) are none other than the more or less systematic exploration of his universe, marked by a wholly consistent approach. His recent activities in his new "buen retiro" in Vallicciano, following the normal period of adaptation, are clearly distinguished by the awareness of his maturity of expression, and move along the dual track of the brush stroke (used to form geometry and construction) and material-paint. These are complementary languages that are often integrated not only in substance but also in pictorial form, conjugating mainly in spatial dimensions which, however, are inherent in both forms of expression. From his earliest works, this informal gestuality differs from the automatic or mechanistic approach of action painting. It is mainly the result of meditation with transcendental overtones, and is therefore the image of space in which feelings and forces can be expressed. It's no chance that the dense brush stroke of material-paint sometimes moves slowly in search of form, in the romantic sense, especially in works with sacred themes. At other times, the substance of the paint is not sufficient to express the concept, particularly when the artist feels the need to emphasize dimensions; in such cases, he uses plaster which he moulds and paints to create bas-reliefs superimposed on the flat surfaces (but there are cases when he also uses unpainted plaster to divide or join areas of a picture).
The form is certainly not that of the extensive, and by no means secondary, collection of drawings in which the gestuality is often made up of schematic objects, sometimes using and elegant language with an oriental flavour. Rather, it is chiefly that of the geometrical composition made up of symbolic and often spatial elements. In this case the paintings are done on shaped supports bristling with tacks, or even become gothic-style constructions that seem to be trying to add a fourth dimension to the three they already have. These "sculptures" in particular display a constructivist vein harking back to Tatlin, with productivist tendencies developed in the Russian avantgarde movements, especially Rodcenko and Stephanova.
In a more general sense, Koulakov manages to express elements of oriental philosophy (particularly Zen) the basis of his original gestuality, with a more material western culture which is open to all kinds of experimental experience. Starting from different cultural origins therefore, this Russian artist has arrived at the universal culture of mankind, understood by all and encompassing everything. In the quiet countryside of the Umbrian hills, only physically removed from other geographical locations where he has found similar conditions in the past (maybe also in the future), in recent months he has produced a large-scale painting made up of several panels, similar to those of his early Muscovite period, now mentally recouped and also physically in terms of studio space available. The four seasons of the Umbrian Landscapes, in reality four meditations on the universal landscape, are on display together for the first time. They have been seen two at a time in Corciano at the "Artists in Umbria" exhibition, and in Toscolano at the "Fiera in festa" exhibition.
In this work, Koulakov has reached a high degree of synthesis in his research through a measured balance of meditative gestuality, the search for space, and chromatic urgency. Without in any way disparaging the other neoconstructivist experiences, still rich in symbols and signs, in which creativity frees itself in a sort of intelligent game between geometric shapes, different materials, and the informality of layers of material-paint without form, pure pictorial work on canvas (especially on a large scale) represents the high point of this artist's achievement in painting.
Massimo Duranti, 1992
To the Soviet public Mikhail Koulakov belongs to that strange phenomenon commonly known as the "phantom artist. " Indeed, his drawings were reproduced in newspapers and his paintings appeared briefly in a few group exhibitions. In intellectual circles, primarily in Leningrad, he enjoyed a certain fame, while however it seemed that the artist did not really exist. He was not cited by the critics, and the general public never had the opportunity of seeing his paintings included in the vast number of official exhibitions, much less in one-man exhibitions. The artist existed but he was never seen, especially after his departure for Italy in 1976.
The same destiny befell many "non-conformist" artists such as Kabakov, Bulatov, Rabin. It is incorrect to speak of integrity and validity of the artistic process when an entire segment is excluded; indeed, no living being which is mutilated can aspire to a healthy development. About the late 1980s the so-called "phantom art" began to be replaced by an art which sought its own directions and investigations. Having surpassed the period of prohibition, it remains the responsibility of the work of art itself to define "who's who" in art according to individual style.
The work of Mikhail Koulakov is still seeking a place in the artistic life of the country. Thus, this retrospective exhibition is not only a first encounter with something already known, but in a certain sense it represents the completion of the general panorama of the art of our time.
One of Koulakov's unique traits has always been a perseverance and consistency of artistic investigation. Each step in the creation of form is pondered, considered and deeply felt, and his spontaneity can be seen as an unexpected action in an otherwise rigorous system of figuration, rather than just the result of chance enlightenment. For Koulakov the artistic experience of other painters (he often cites Pollock, Tobey and ancient Russian art) never results in reinterpretation or imitation, but rather serves as a pretext to affirm his own independent thought. For this very reason perhaps already in its "phantom" existence the art of Koulakov was not intended as an unrestrained polemic as an end in itself, but as a personal interior meditation where the "artistic form" meant "essence of life. " This type of meditative art usually makes the life of an artist difficult; it leads to isolation, but at the same time it lends a philosophical depth to the work.
Koulakov himself divides his artistic activity into three main periods, each connected to a particular geographical area and to an artistic vocabulary: Moscow, Leningrad and Rome. Each period is distinguished from the others by one small detail, leaving unaltered the continuity of his figurative solutions and in particular his relationship to form. Early in his career the artist chose the Informel as his means of expression, exploiting the dynamic gesture, the spontaneous movement of the brush, and the unpredictable results obtained by the fluidity of the paint. However, his art was never like Pollock's "action painting. " The pictorial structure of Koulakov's works is always more rigid, the relationship between the color fields is rigorously calculated, the construction is controlled more by the movement of thought than by the spontaneous movement of the brush. And this leads to an appreciation of the subject, in particular in his early works, where the Informel coexists with figures and objects, blending them into an abstract composition.
With the passing of time the Informel takes precedence and the color fields blend in harmony with the plastic forms, both in the two-dimensional works and in the three-dimensional panel constructions (these polychrome structures, somewhere between sculpture and painting, appear with increasing frequency in the art of Koulakov). The pictorial value of the works varies according to the artist's preferences, at times reflecting the chromatic violence of Pollock or the rigorous stroke of oriental art, while the nature of the paintings changes very little. The composition is characterized by a rich color, often thickly applied, which creates a rhythmic passage from one emotionally charged zone to another even more intense one.
However, it is neither the chromatic value nor unique composition of Koulakov's paintings which makes them an autonomous whole. His works have something which at first sight does not appear to be so important, but which gradually moves into the foreground to reveal the rich imagery of the artist's world.
Already in his earliest works Koulakov tended to destroy the two-dimensional surface. The buildup of the chromatic layers, the use of bitumen, plaster and nitroenamels applied layer upon layer, created a sort of relief. The image was formed on the surface and then projected into three-dimensional space. This new representation of pictorial space led Koulakov to the creation of multi-paneled painting/constructions which took possession of the surrounding space, including that of the spectator, forming a type of microcosm. These constructions do not improve on nature but rather transform it into a personal, fantastic and uniquely dynamic world of colors and spatial confusion - a world of objects and not of illusion.
With the growth of a new and purely pictorial space that assumes increasingly significant dimensions, Koulakov's artistic conception itself changes. These Informel paintings, these spatial constructions, seem to create a wall that confines the artist to his own personal world. He wanders in these extra-terrestrial constructions (it is not by chance that one of these works is entitled Martian), listening to the pictorial language known only to him, suffering or enjoying the flux and flames of color, but he is not ready to destroy this marvelous and agonized solitude which comes from creating.
It is difficult to say whether this is a gift or a damnation. But it is the destiny consciously chosen by the artist and the road is not easy. The exhibtion of Koulakov's works will undoubtedly have a great effect both as an artistic Phenomenon and as an act of cultural justice so necessary to our era.
The same destiny befell many "non-conformist" artists such as Kabakov, Bulatov, Rabin. It is incorrect to speak of integrity and validity of the artistic process when an entire segment is excluded; indeed, no living being which is mutilated can aspire to a healthy development. About the late 1980s the so-called "phantom art" began to be replaced by an art which sought its own directions and investigations. Having surpassed the period of prohibition, it remains the responsibility of the work of art itself to define "who's who" in art according to individual style.
The work of Mikhail Koulakov is still seeking a place in the artistic life of the country. Thus, this retrospective exhibition is not only a first encounter with something already known, but in a certain sense it represents the completion of the general panorama of the art of our time.
One of Koulakov's unique traits has always been a perseverance and consistency of artistic investigation. Each step in the creation of form is pondered, considered and deeply felt, and his spontaneity can be seen as an unexpected action in an otherwise rigorous system of figuration, rather than just the result of chance enlightenment. For Koulakov the artistic experience of other painters (he often cites Pollock, Tobey and ancient Russian art) never results in reinterpretation or imitation, but rather serves as a pretext to affirm his own independent thought. For this very reason perhaps already in its "phantom" existence the art of Koulakov was not intended as an unrestrained polemic as an end in itself, but as a personal interior meditation where the "artistic form" meant "essence of life. " This type of meditative art usually makes the life of an artist difficult; it leads to isolation, but at the same time it lends a philosophical depth to the work.
Koulakov himself divides his artistic activity into three main periods, each connected to a particular geographical area and to an artistic vocabulary: Moscow, Leningrad and Rome. Each period is distinguished from the others by one small detail, leaving unaltered the continuity of his figurative solutions and in particular his relationship to form. Early in his career the artist chose the Informel as his means of expression, exploiting the dynamic gesture, the spontaneous movement of the brush, and the unpredictable results obtained by the fluidity of the paint. However, his art was never like Pollock's "action painting. " The pictorial structure of Koulakov's works is always more rigid, the relationship between the color fields is rigorously calculated, the construction is controlled more by the movement of thought than by the spontaneous movement of the brush. And this leads to an appreciation of the subject, in particular in his early works, where the Informel coexists with figures and objects, blending them into an abstract composition.
With the passing of time the Informel takes precedence and the color fields blend in harmony with the plastic forms, both in the two-dimensional works and in the three-dimensional panel constructions (these polychrome structures, somewhere between sculpture and painting, appear with increasing frequency in the art of Koulakov). The pictorial value of the works varies according to the artist's preferences, at times reflecting the chromatic violence of Pollock or the rigorous stroke of oriental art, while the nature of the paintings changes very little. The composition is characterized by a rich color, often thickly applied, which creates a rhythmic passage from one emotionally charged zone to another even more intense one.
However, it is neither the chromatic value nor unique composition of Koulakov's paintings which makes them an autonomous whole. His works have something which at first sight does not appear to be so important, but which gradually moves into the foreground to reveal the rich imagery of the artist's world.
Already in his earliest works Koulakov tended to destroy the two-dimensional surface. The buildup of the chromatic layers, the use of bitumen, plaster and nitroenamels applied layer upon layer, created a sort of relief. The image was formed on the surface and then projected into three-dimensional space. This new representation of pictorial space led Koulakov to the creation of multi-paneled painting/constructions which took possession of the surrounding space, including that of the spectator, forming a type of microcosm. These constructions do not improve on nature but rather transform it into a personal, fantastic and uniquely dynamic world of colors and spatial confusion - a world of objects and not of illusion.
With the growth of a new and purely pictorial space that assumes increasingly significant dimensions, Koulakov's artistic conception itself changes. These Informel paintings, these spatial constructions, seem to create a wall that confines the artist to his own personal world. He wanders in these extra-terrestrial constructions (it is not by chance that one of these works is entitled Martian), listening to the pictorial language known only to him, suffering or enjoying the flux and flames of color, but he is not ready to destroy this marvelous and agonized solitude which comes from creating.
It is difficult to say whether this is a gift or a damnation. But it is the destiny consciously chosen by the artist and the road is not easy. The exhibtion of Koulakov's works will undoubtedly have a great effect both as an artistic Phenomenon and as an act of cultural justice so necessary to our era.
Vladimir Goriainov, 1989
I do not consider myself an art expert. However, art is appreciated even by the inexperienced. For me, having lived for decades with prohibitions, art is above all an expression of freedom. And it is freedom that I appreciate more than anything else in the world and that I aspire to know in all its fullness.
As I understand it the art of Koulakov creates freedom with the many expressions of textural painting: the colors, the plaster, the metal, the unusual chromatic compositions similar to distant flashes of lightning (yes, distant flashes of lightning because I have seen so few in my life), the attempts to exceed-the traditional dimension of the painting, the images, the jarring view of natural alterations, the movement of the hand, the gesture of the artist and his work as an act, a message, as something which is in constant formation, now fast, now slow...
All these are elements of freedom which the painter offers to the colors themselves, allowing them to run and form a multitude of uncontrolled combinations. The artist uses an infinity of "materials" and methods to acquire a new type of spontaneity.
It would be wrong to see the art of Koulakov as a game, as an end in itself. Freedom is real only when it expresses something genuinely new.
The old past is not freedom, it is death, it is nonexistence, which we approach, or from which we distance ourselves volontarily in the most diverse periods of our existence. Mikhail Koulakov places the essence of existence both in what is commonly considered important and in what is commonly considered "insignificant" - and that is new.
The artist exploits themes of the cosmos, the origin of life, the deification of the Being-Orant, the Madonna, the Apocalypse, or simply the miracle of a mountain or a kiss. His Royal Portal opens towards the unknown, it is improbable that his Martian comes from Mars, Boldino's Autumn is pure abstraction without any connection to Pushkin. Koulakov's paintings often lack objects, they are about space located on the surface of a painting, about conflict, about a shower of fire, and about the juxtaposition of two unlike elements, falling water and showering fire.
I delight in the freedom of the works of Mikhail Koulakov, in their use of unusual themes or in their absence of subject, in their combination of colors and their compositional solutions. But are they indeed solutions? At times it seems that Koulakov operates by intuition, the sister of freedom. I expect many things from him, all unpredictable and marvelous in their freedom.
As I understand it the art of Koulakov creates freedom with the many expressions of textural painting: the colors, the plaster, the metal, the unusual chromatic compositions similar to distant flashes of lightning (yes, distant flashes of lightning because I have seen so few in my life), the attempts to exceed-the traditional dimension of the painting, the images, the jarring view of natural alterations, the movement of the hand, the gesture of the artist and his work as an act, a message, as something which is in constant formation, now fast, now slow...
All these are elements of freedom which the painter offers to the colors themselves, allowing them to run and form a multitude of uncontrolled combinations. The artist uses an infinity of "materials" and methods to acquire a new type of spontaneity.
It would be wrong to see the art of Koulakov as a game, as an end in itself. Freedom is real only when it expresses something genuinely new.
The old past is not freedom, it is death, it is nonexistence, which we approach, or from which we distance ourselves volontarily in the most diverse periods of our existence. Mikhail Koulakov places the essence of existence both in what is commonly considered important and in what is commonly considered "insignificant" - and that is new.
The artist exploits themes of the cosmos, the origin of life, the deification of the Being-Orant, the Madonna, the Apocalypse, or simply the miracle of a mountain or a kiss. His Royal Portal opens towards the unknown, it is improbable that his Martian comes from Mars, Boldino's Autumn is pure abstraction without any connection to Pushkin. Koulakov's paintings often lack objects, they are about space located on the surface of a painting, about conflict, about a shower of fire, and about the juxtaposition of two unlike elements, falling water and showering fire.
I delight in the freedom of the works of Mikhail Koulakov, in their use of unusual themes or in their absence of subject, in their combination of colors and their compositional solutions. But are they indeed solutions? At times it seems that Koulakov operates by intuition, the sister of freedom. I expect many things from him, all unpredictable and marvelous in their freedom.
Dimitri Likhaciov, 1989