Russian painter
Mikhail Alexievich Koulakov (; 8 January 1933 – 15 February 2015) was a Russian abstract painter.
Life.
Born in Moscow on 8 January 1933, Koulakov majored in stage design, studying with the painter and director Nikolai Akimov, at the Institute of Theatre Arts in Leningrad. He worked as a graphic designer for the publishing company Lenizdat, illustrating the work of his friends, the poets V. Sosnora, G. Gorbovsky, S. Davydov, and the short stories and tales of Alexander Grin among others. Koulakov worked for theatres in Volchov, Leningrad and Moscow. In 1967 he designed the stage set for Vladimir Mayakovsky's play ″The Bathhouse″ at the Moscow Theater of Satire. Koulakov resided in Italy from 1976 until his death in 2015 and worked in his studio in San Vito (Narni), Umbria. In 1993 he was elected a senior academician of the Fine Arts Academy “Pietro Vannucci”, Perugia.
Koulakov died on 15 February 2015, aged 82.
Art.
Koulakov was a representative of the Soviet avant-garde of the 1960s and one of the founders of the "Second Abstraction" in Russia; he graduated in set design under Nikolai Akimov, an artist and the director, at the Leningrad's Institute for Theatrical Arts in 1962, and started his career in Moscow and Leningrad where his works were displayed in alternative spaces to the prevailing socialist realism.
Martial arts.
Koulakov was a tai chi 7th Dan master. In 1990 he published the book "Tai Chi Chuan, il Grande Limite".
Exhibitions.
His anthological exhibitions include: 
Some of the collective exhibitions he has taken part: 
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;