How Kitsch are you? Can you compose like Beethoven today?Successors should imitate his coffee habits, not his music.Develop and make use of the best from the traditional material.Should you communicate with your own voice?The work should be your signature.One should say as little as possible in one’s own voice.Should your work reflect your time?The spirit of your time is also your own spirit.If you reflect your time you will die along with it.Is there more to a painting than what meets the eye?If a painting has soul, it’s something outside the technical execution.Nothing exists beyond the surface of the canvas.Through your work — should you tell a story?Yes, in poetry, storytelling is primary.No, design, not content, is essential.How should color be treated in a painting?Mix of contrary colors produce harmony.Colors ought to be pure and thus separated.Can you make an impersonal self-portrait?Any portraiture should display a universal, not personal truth.No, then it would no longer be an expression of the self.Is it inappropriate to paint a portrait of Joseph Stalin?Yes, beauty is a symbol of public moral.No. Even improper people should be depicted noble.A nude by Lucian Freud or a nude by Andrew Wyeth?Freud – an uncomplimentary approach to reality challenges the viewer.Wyeth – great painters depict their subjects with dignity.Is a great work made with joy?Emotional state will not inflict the result.Things are better achieved with pleasure.Any comments about the questionnaire? Your profession