r. Ivan Koulakov PhD is famous for being both a Sibrian scientist and artist. The symbiosis of his scientific career and art career has allowed Koulakov to exhibit in many different countries worldwide.

Koulakov was born on July, 15, 1967 in city of Novosibirsk located in Siberia. Novosibirsk is the third largest city in Russia, the world's largest country. During his childhood Ivan visited the lectures his father Professor Yury Koulakov conducted on both classical and contemporary art. The museums of the former USSR along with the paintings and photographs his father showed him have had a significant influence on Koulakov's art. Today he says that these lectures were much more important to his development as an artist than any school of arts or university could have been.

Ivan Koulakov Kiss, 2001, oil on canvas 95 x 57 cm.

I hate the beginning process of painting because it exhausts me completely. When I start working on a new painting I get tired after only fifteen minutes of working. But if I pass through this difficult period I see that some lines work and I catch the end of these lines and try to follow them throughout the whole painting. After that I erase everything and start again, so the lines show more life. A painting should not be too worked out. It should be fresh, it should be fast. You should not have lines that are made slowly because you can feel immediately when a line is made slowly, it is completely different from one which is made fast.

I never used to make sketches. But lately I have started to make sketches. I just draw line construction sketches when I have the time. I travel a lot so I have a lot of time on planes, in airports and in hotels. I have several books full of ideas and sketches and I am always looking forward to going back to these ideas and using them for paintings. There are many more ideas in my sketchbooks than I could ever turn into paintings.

If you have a clear algorithm (a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem) from the beginning to the end it is much easier to paint paintings. Sometimes it is pleasant to follow an algorithm and you can be sure that you will get a good result. But I cannot follow an algorithm. I've discussed this many times with other artists from Russia and they say I should have an algorithm . They say you should always be sure that you will get a painting: that is the function of an algorithm. If you don't have an algorithm it means that you are not professional.

Art Interview: I don't believe that following an algorithm has anything to do with being professional. There are two different approaches to creating art and some artists are able to combine these approaches. The one approach is to follow an algorithm, also known as a systematic approach, and the other is to create the work from an unknown each and every time. Some artists that are famous follow algorithms. For example, the American painter Chuck Close, who is famous for making very large portrait paintings, knows exactly what he will be doing before he goes into his studio and starts painting. Because he knows in advance approximately what his painting will look like and he uses a systematic approach he is able simply to concentrate on applying paint to the canvas. But there are other artists who have no idea what their painting will become. When they go into their studios they have to face a big white canvas and that canvas can be very intimidating. Then they start to work into it. Sometimes the painting comes easy and fast, sometimes it is hard and can take many hours. The artist works into it and takes away, puts more on, and takes away more and cleans and so on...

Ivan Koulakov: That is exactly the way I work. Sometimes it is very fast and when it is very fast it is always very successful. If I work too much with my painting I know it will not work out and I redraw it completely. So I paint over everything with white paint and I start again. I am able to remember what I did and I start again fresh. It is like an undo button. Sometimes I work too much with the computers and after that I go home and draw. I realize that I am missing the undo button especially when I work with aquarelle or with watercolours. Sometimes it is really missing.

Ivan Koulakov Three musicians, 2001, oil on canvas 100 x 75 cm.

Ivan Koulakov: Yes, of course. I got my PhD a long time ago and I still work as a geologist. After I got my doctorate I went to France. I spent one year there and that experience changed me quite a bit. There is a wonderful place between Nice and Monaco, a small city called Villefranche it is a small paradise. I'm always drawn back there. This year I was there eight or nine times. Fortunately, it is easier for me to travel now. I'm a very lucky person because I can travel a lot. Thanks to my work as a geologist I have travelled to many different countries around the world. Last time I was in Jordan, we made a wonderful trip with jeeps looking at the best natural sites in the country. Before that I was in the Andes in Chile.

Art Interview: Have you experienced any problems travelling to your exhibitions?

Ivan Koulakov: The most difficult country to travel to is the United States. The worst travelling situation I have ever experienced has been with the US. The United States is the only country that has ever refused to allow me to enter the country. For one and a half years I had prepared a very important and big exhibition in New York City, in SoHo. It was a good gallery. I had a huge job producing all of the work and preparing everything for the trip. But I thought that I would not have any difficulties entering the country. I organized a science trip in conjunction with my exhibition and the university paid for all of my expenses. I was to stay for one month in Princeton, which is not very far away from New York. So, everything was organized perfectly. My family was staying in Germany at the time and I had a job in Germany so I was sure that nothing could happen and I was 100% sure that I would get a visa to the United States. But I received a reply saying that I did not provide enough proof that I would not stay in the United States. They assumed that I would leave my family, I would leave my job, I would leave my scientific career and I would work in some pizzeria illegally. Needless to say I was furious.

Even now three years later my Russian colleagues who are very well known professors of geology cannot get American visas. They recently tried to go to a conference in the United States and were not allowed into the country even though they are very well established scientists. The visa problem is not just because of the tightened security after September 11th. It is impossible to believe that this has anything to do with terrorism because I have another colleague who is a seventy-year-old Russian Jewish man who is very well-known in the world of science as a great scientist; even he did not get a visa. But I have never had any problems getting a visa anywhere in Europe. I come so often to Europe that everybody in the embassy knows me by now and I just have to press the backdoor bell and say that I have an appointment with someone from the cultural section and I get a visa without a problem. Travelling in Europe is much better.

I have a perfect combination of science and art. Science helps me very much. It is much more difficult for other Siberian artists who are very good to get the opportunity to exhibit their work. But at the same time I do know some people who can exhibit their work just about anywhere. One of them is a good friend of mine who saved me once when I found myself in a horrible situation in Cyprus. I decided to take my two sons on a nice trip to Greece after having a very successful exhibition in the United States. We rented a beautiful apartment on the beach, but after a week I was bored and I decided we should go to another island. After leaving I realized that I had lost my wallet. I did have my passport but I had lost all of my money. I didn't even have change in my pocket to pay for water. The police were of no help, they just told me that I could go to the church and ask for money. But I didn't lose my optimism. I realized that I would find a solution to the problem because we could not stay in Greece forever. I knew that we would find money somehow so I decided it would be OK to rent rooms in a hotel. I left my children in the hotel and I took a walk though the city. I was very surprised to see a museum dedicated to the Russian poet Puschkin. Unfortunately it was closed but I left a piece of paper on the door explaining my situation. I wrote: "Please help, I am an artist from Siberia and I am staying at such and such hotel." A few hours later a friend of mine appeared. He is an artist who had just had a very successful exhibition in Cyprus. I hadn't known that he was in Greece but he went by chance to the Puschkin Museum and was surprised when he saw my note. He gave me money and I was saved. He is now in Nice and in January he will have an exhibition in Amsterdam. He is much younger than I am and he is travelling around and only doing art. So it is good sign that you can live off of art. My sister is also an artist and she also lives only from her art. She has three children and a husband who doesn't work and she is able to survive and live quite well. I don't see many people in the West who are able to do that.

Art Interview: In the last five years Europe's economy has changed dramatically for the worse. It was much easier to live on less money before the Euro. Is it easier to live on less money in Siberia than in Europe?

Ivan Koulakov: Yes, of course. You need much less money there. Even if people say the prices are the same as in Europe I have not experienced this to be true. When I had my family here I was always below zero in my bank account. But as soon as my family left I stopped spending money and even though they continued to draw money from my bank account from Russia I was able to save. The Russian economy and the European economy are not comparable. They are not comparable at all.

Art Interview: Currently in the United States the middle class is shrinking. It is possible to make very good money in the United States if you have the proper connections, but there are a lot of people who are extremely poor in the United States. In Europe the middle class is much stronger due to the social support built into the European governments. Europe does not have the extremes between rich and poor that you find in the States. I understand that the distance between rich and poor in Russia is even worse than in the United States. How does this affect the standard of living for Russian artists?

Ivan Koulakov: There are many poor people living in Russia. But the saddest thing is that most of the poor are the older people. In the West older people are more or less financially secure and it is the younger people are poorer. But in Russia young people have every opportunity to do business. You don't find young people who are truly poor in Russia but there are a lot of poor older people and this is sad.

I think that the United States is still a country where miracles can happen. Your career can rise up very quickly there. I have been in the United States three times and each time I had the impression that a miracle could happen at any time. Every time I have gone there I have experienced something extraordinary. One time I stayed in New York City for two months. I had gone there without any particular art project in mind but I was supposed to do some scientific work later on in Massachusetts. While I was there I received a call from a man I had met over the Internet but had never met face to face. He told me that I should pick up a ticket he had bought for me so that I could come and visit him. When I asked him where I was supposed to pick up the ticket, he said at the airport, of course,, the plane for Fort Lauderdale, Florida is leaving in two hours. So I cancelled my projects in Massachusetts and flew to Fort Lauderdale. A man picked me up in a very nice car and we drove to an enormous empty house on the beach. No one was living in this house and it was so chic it was almost like a museum. When the driver left I asked my friend if he was someone who worked for him. He said no, that was the owner of the house; he is twenty-four years old and has about eighty million dollars to his name. He said the owner didn't live in this house because he prefers to live on a small farm with his horses and dogs. He lets artists stay at the house because he is a sculptor himself. But I think he was a little bit crazy.

During the first evening he told me that we had very urgent work to do. We were to help some gallery at an international art convention in Palm Beach pack up from the fair. When I got there I was completely shocked because I found myself helping to pack original paintings by Monet, Dali, and Chagall. It was so exciting just to touch these works because they are very rare in Russia. We worked the whole night packing paintings, glassware and antiques. You can't imagine what it was like to be a Siberian artist and have the opportunity to handle such art. It was fantastic. After that he took me back to the house where there was a room full of suits and ties that I had to try on. When I was properly dressed we went to a reception being given by some millionaires. I had the feeling I was in a movie. At the party some of the older wives were flirting with me and I had no idea what to do in such a situation. A millionaire was standing there in front of me and his wife was grabbing my ass. I was completely lost. It makes me think that if I were braver I would probably be more successful in life.

Crazy people make our lives much brighter. There are good people who try not to make waves. They do nothing positive and they do nothing negative. Then there are crazy people who do a lot of positive things but they also do a lot of negative things. People have said to me: Tomorrow we will go and arrange an exhibition of your paintings at the museum. But so far the next day there are always all kinds of excuses why it can't be done. Nonetheless, I think these people in spite of their lies and manipulations still make our lives very bright.

There are many crazy people in the world. I have had three or four experiences where these people gave me a lot. They invited me to their place and paid for everything and made me many promises, but they always promise too much. I make the mistake of believing them and expecting too much. Every time it is the same. I think this is a general mistake of all artists. When someone says you are a genius and that they want to sell your work for a million dollars and organize your paintings in this or that museum it is very easy for an artist to believe these lies. When the artist realizes that not everything is necessarily true he starts to get nervous around these people, conflicts arise and the relationships eventually falter.

Art Interview: Have you experienced differences between exhibiting in the United States, Europe and Russia?

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Brendan Davis is a highly esteemed contemporary realist painter prized for his meticulous technique and illusionistic effects. He was born in the United States and began formal training in fine arts at the age of four. Davis studied fine art at the University of Toledo and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 1994. Mr. Davis currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He is the managing director of Brendan Davis Studios and the editor and chief of Art Interview Online Magazine. Davis' paintings are sought by collectors throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

This oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded conversation between Ivan Koulakov and Brendan Davis on December, 05, 2004. The interview took place at Mr. Davis's residence in Berlin, Germany, and was conducted for Art Interview Online Magazine.