Breus Alexey

Biography

Alexey (Les) Breus is an independent artist, a follower of Tralfrealism; he lives and works in Kiev, Ukraine.

Alexey (Les) Breus was born in 1959 in the region of Kuban, Russia. In 1974, he finished the school of fine arts. He graduated from Bauman Moscow National Technology University (1982) and took lectures in the press department of Taras Shevchenko Kiev National University (1990). He is a member of the social and ecological group of the independent artists "Strontium-90". Since 1990 the art group has united artists concerned with Chernobyl consequences.

Alexey (Les) Breus is one of leaders of Tralfrealism - a new trend in fine arts that was conceived in the XX century’s early 80-s. As a creative method of painting, Tralfrealism abides by the set of principles annunciated in the Tralfrealism Manifesto. Most fundamental of these concern reaffirmation of an artist’s creative autonomy and individual convictions, as well as his acknowledgement of basic moral, ethical and aesthetic values.

According to the Tralfrealism Manifesto, as its innermost aesthetic, humanitarian and spiritual value, Tralfrealism unreservedly embraces Harmony which embodies a fertile concordance of other values. For its main aesthetic values Tralfrealism takes pictures queness of form and sensuousness of color. The prototypes of tralfrealistic images and of their color content can be drawn from elements of the everyday environment, as well as from the mental universe of imagination and fantasy, which is to be seen as unconditionally existing and real in the full sense of the world. Tralfrealistic imagery may also emerge as a result of creative visualization of basic moral and ethical values endorsed by tralfrealism.

Alexey (Les) Breus would like to underline that the main idea of this art movement lies in the fact that associative and mental phenomena stand for reality which is worth to be analyzed and materialized constructively. This kind of Tralfrealism brings it near the "through-the-worlds" or "transparent" realism of Daniil Andreyev, when the "other" world comes partly into view through "this" world.

The works of the artist are kept in the private collection of Ukraine, Russia, USA, Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Japan. The first graphic compositions of "The Others" cycle were created few years before the Chernobyl disaster when the artist lived in Pripyat, Chernobyl personnel town. His works were taken out of the deserted town after the evacuation of inhabitants from Chernobyl exclusion zone.

For his participation in emergency operations inside the destroyed unit of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station for the first hours after the explosion of the reactor on April 26, 1986, Alexey Breus was decorated by the Soviet Government with the medal "For Valorous Service."