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Alexander Bushuev, modern Russian artist

Biography and family [edit | edit the code]

Alexander Bushuev (Bush) was born in Leningrad in a family of young teachers. His mother Galina (nee Korobovа) has graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Culture, her father Sergey Korobov was the Chief of Staff of the Pskov airborne division. Bush's father Valery V. Bushuev is a graduate of the Institute of Physical Culture. On the paternal side, the entire family originates from beyond the Urals. After the graduation from the institutes in 1966, Bush's parents went to the city of Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad (former Koenigsberg) region. In 1971, the family had finally settled in Pskov. In 1975 the sister of Alexander, Olga V. Bushueva (currently working in the Ministry of Interior) was born.

The grandfather, being the fine artist, was engaged in the Museum. The mother also worked there and Alexander, visiting her frequently, had long talks with Leonid Tvorogov (the founder of the archive of the Pskov Museum-reserve). For some time the Bushuev family has been living in Zvenigorod where Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris" was filmed. The actor Donatas Banionis was posted for accommodation with Bushuevs and the Director lived across the street. He used to visit them and Sasha's parents had spent many evenings in very interesting company. Bushuev, Jr. sat meanwhile on Tarkovsky's lap.

Alexander graduated from the Pskov school № 8. In 1980 he entered the Leningrad River College and graduated with a degree in Hydraulic Engineering. In 1984 - 1992 he worked in the civil fleet as an engineer, the commander of the dredger and the captain.

Alexander Bushuev has two kids — Alina Alexandrovna Titova (1986) and Sergey Bushuev (1987). Both graduated from Pskov State University. Alina has a degree in the Department of Psychology (2012), Sergei has a diploma of the Faculty of Administration and Management of State Entities (2015). In November, 2017 Alexander's grandson Gregory was born.

Creativity [edit | edit the code]

Bushuev started drawing at 33 lying in a hospital bed. He had broken his leg badly parking the beloved motorcycle weighing almost a third of a ton. So he had to stay for a long month and a half in the hospital in 1998.

"I had to lie all the time with my leg in a traction. And my good friend and mentor, I call him a teacher, Anatoly Elizarov gave me a sketchbook and the first set of paints with the words: "Sasha, you still have nothing to do, try to draw". Then everything was as in a fog. At first I drew just to stretch my hands and some time after there came a feeling of happiness." The first personal exhibition was held in January 1999 in the United States, in the town of Olympia, Washington. It was organized by Susan Emley, an American who had seen accidentally the work of the young artist during her teaching practice in Pskov. Alexander is still great friends with Susan who had a fundamental influence on the formation of his picturesque career.

"Mitki" and not only [edit | edit the code]

In 2000, during his second exhibition in New York, USA, Bushuev has been acquainted with the St. Petersburg art group "Mitki", two of whom, Dmitry Shagin and Andrei Filippov (along with Anatoly Yelizarov), Alexander calls his teachers. In the same year Alexander joined the Creative Association "Mitki", taking over from colleagues not so much of artistic techniques but a philosophy. So he learned to "mitkovat", that means to work in the bright "Mitki" 's key for which you need to wear a vest (can be a virtual one) and tune to a joyful and slightly hooligan mood. Since 2000, the Bushuev takes part practically in all exhibitions of the "Mitki"in Russia and abroad, actively exhibits in person.

Dmitry Shagin said so seriously at the beginning of their creative relationship: "Sasha, you should keep away from all those art courses and schools. You have a good seed which you should carry on and develop. In any case you should not learn. Because we, old "Mitki", in our majority are educated people and we are severely hampered because of the professional learning".

"I have another teacher Taisiya Alexandrovna Shvetsova. She's a bright person, a wonderful woman, she began to draw at her later age. And so it was exactly she who has taught me the attitude to the painting. It's simple: if you're in a bad mood and sit down to draw, you may get nothing and fail. Even in the day when I think about something bad, I know that it's better not to take the brush in a hand. And when I took on this simple and light formula, I actually did a new cycle of painting. I can say that from this moment I began to draw in a meaningful way."

Acrylic rock-n-roll [edit | edit the code]

In his work Alexander Bushuev considers that it is important not to depict but to display the status of the current time. He notes that he does not see much of a difference between the painting and the music. A favorite theme of the artist — the urban landscape (or perhaps music of the cities). His work filled with love and warmth is the essence of the experience of roads, architecture, monasteries, rivers and bridges, cars and trams. The captured image retains the quickness of glance accompanied by the appropriate emotions. And it seems as if the music begins: any paint is a note, any brushstroke is a chord, chords together with strokes create the melody, often ironic and humorous. It is the music, but in acrylic and on a canvas. Bushuev likes to draw analogies between the music and the visual arts: "Rock-n-roll is based on three chords and I have three or four colors, not more. The same as rock-n-roll... Furthermore, the rock-n-roll is characterized by jokes, the irony... I have the same thing."

Bushuev is the diverse artist. He likes to change the writing style, themes, format (from miniatures to monumental canvases) — in short, everything. To stagnate, to exploit the mode once found is not his feature. His peculiar singularity is to wonder, to marvel, and afterwards to share these surprise and delight with the audience. Please do not think that it was very easy for Bush to find his own pictorial language (one should not call it a style). He is in painting already for more than twenty years. A self-taught artist, Bushuev has tried different techniques. He started with tempera, later tried to paint in oil and was fascinated with the result. But now he prefers acrylics. This material suits him, although he admits that "painting with acrylic, it is as if you coil the spring and when you write afterwards in oil — you fire, and the effect even exceeds your expectations."

"Spontaneous, natural and light" are the key definitions for Bushuev's works. The artist seeks to reflect the world in a simple and open form, that is why his pictures are eagerly exhibited in European galleries and centers of contemporary art. Alexander's works are located in the Pskov State United Historical-Architectural and Art Museum Reserve, Riga's Museum of Naive Art on the island of Andrejsala (Riga), the State Memorial Historical-Literary and Natural-Landscape Museum-Reserve of A. S. Pushkin "Mikhailovskoye", St. Petersburg State Museum "Tsarskoselskaya collection", Museum of Condasa (Viljandi, Estonia), the Museum of the Creative Association "Mitki", St.-Petersburg, "Dar" ("Gift") gallery in Pskov, the Museum of Modern Art POP-UP Museum in Moscow, in many domestic and foreign private collections. Among the admirers of Bushuev 's talent are well-known Russian politicians, businessmen and musicians.

Social and charitable activities [edit | edit the code]

Alexander Bushuev lives and works in Pskov where he is engaged in active public, educational and charitable activities.

"The positive mechanics": the Indian on a guitarocycle [edit | edit the code]

Alexander Bushuev, just Bush for the vast majority of the Pskov bikers, is a founder of the Pskov motor club "Positive mechanics" (founded in 1999). Since 2007, he is the organizer of the Pskov "MotoSummits" and the most influential Pskov biker being the one of the key figures of the Russian North-West motor-community.

Support of boarding schools and orphanages [edit | edit the code]

"Our goal is to give children the feeling that they have friends on whom they can rely," says Alexander Bushuev. For more than 10 years motorcyclists of "Positive Mechanics" communicate with pupils of the Opochetskaya correctional boarding school. It happens at least twice a year — within summer and during the New year and Christmas festivities. The program of events includes contests, riding motorcycles, picnics, excursions, performances, concerts of local and invited performers. The winners are awarded with prizes and gifts. It is important to note that this event is the exceptional initiative of Pskov motorcyclists and is conducted by them at their own expense. During their visits, bikers communicate with children in a relaxed mode telling them about the dangers of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. Creative club "Phoenix" [edit | edit the code]

In the spring of 2012 Alexander Bushuev, together with a group of his like-minded friends, has founded the creative club "Phoenix". The club is focused on the creative development of adolescents and youngsters. "Phoenix" offers studios for music, painting, dancing, regularly holds meetings with interesting people and presents a variety of workshops.

Monument dedicated to a Lantern in Pechory [edit | edit the code]

Alexander Bushuev is the author and the giver of the first and still the only one in the world "Monument Lantern", established on December 10, 2011 in the town of Pechory of the Pskov region. A memorial sign is located in the urban square in front of shopping stalls near the Pskov-Pechory monastery. The drawing of the monument dedicated to a lantern was done by Andrey Selyutin and it was forged by Pskov blacksmiths Vladimir Bezhenar and Alexander Vishnevskiy, with the support of the famous blacksmith Evgeniy Vagino, the head of the historical-ethnographic centre "Pskov Blacksmith Yard" of the Pskov Museum-Reserve. The antique stylе monument has a height of 3 meters 30 cm. Its candle is a reminder of the first street lamps.

The temple-chapel in Mitkovitsy (Pechora district) [edit | edit the code]

The temple-chapel in the village of Mitkovitsy (Pechora district of the Pskov region), was restored in 2014, by the zeal of the inhabitants. In July 2011, on a hill of the village of Mitkovitsy where before the war WWII was the old chapel, the memorial cross was laid on at the expense of Alexander Bushuev. He created the design of the chapel based on photographs found in the village files. The project was approved in the diocese of Pskov and the Department of Urban Development of Pskov City administration.

At first, the villagers of Mitkovitsy planned to restore only the chapel, but the Metropolitan Pskov and Velikoluksky Eusebius, giving a blessing, insisted that it should be a Church with conducted services and an altar with an iconostasis. Bushuev took an active part in its construction together with the residents of Metkovitsy. The opening of the Church and its consecration took place on 2 August 2014.

Collective and personal exhibitions [edit | edit the code]

1999 — Olympia, Washington, USA; 2000 — New York, USA; 2002 — Bielefeld, Germany; 2007 — "Labels". Moscow — Saint-Petersburg; 2008 — "Mitki in Pskov"; 2009 — "Mitki to "Pushkin Reserve" Pushkinskie Gory; 2009 — "Mitki in Novgorod." Novgorod The Great; 2010-12 — "Stop on Demand", throughout the country; 2011 — "Mitki in Space", Museum of Cosmonautics, Moscow; 2011 — "Mitki" in Yekaterinburg. 2010 — "Anniversary Exhibition at the Manege", Saint-Petersburg; 2013 — "Posters", Moscow, Saint-Petersburg; 2013 — "Mitki and the Russian Statehood", all over the country; 2013 — Exhibition for the City Day. The Seasons Magazine, Moscow; 2015 — "Aphorisms. Kozma Prutkov", Gallery "Vellum", Moscow; 2015 — "My Rock-n-Roll", Pskov; 2016 — "Kozma Prutkov and Mitki. Apothegms", GLM, Moscow; 2016 — "Vinogradovs' Gallery" Berlin, Germany; 2016 — "Mitki in Berlin", "Russian house", Berlin, Germany; 2016 — Heinävesi, Finland; 2016 — "My Banks", Cultural center "Na Patriarshikh", Moscow; 2017 — "Arefievs and Mitki. Family Savinykh in Informal Art", Gallery "Vellum", ARTPLAY, Moscow; 2017 — "Ivan-tea", Gallery "Dar", Pskov; 2017 — Exhibition Project of the POP UP MUSEUM, Design business centre, NEO GEO, Moscow.

Notes [edit | edit the code]

↑ Olga Bushueva "Bushuev Effect", "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2017. — 28 September. ↑ Elena Kovaleva, Alexander Bushuev: I feel sorry for those who have no friends // "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2014. — September 16. ↑ Elena Kovaleva, Alexander Bushuev: I feel sorry for those who have no friends // "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2014. — September 16. ↑ Elena Kovaleva, Alexander Bushuev: I feel sorry for those who have no friends // "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2014. — September 16. ↑ Elena Kovaleva, Alexander Bushuev: I feel sorry for those who have no friends // "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2014. — September 16. ↑ Alexei Semenov "Spontaneous Action" // "Pskovskaya Guberniya". — 2015. — 11-17 November. ↑ Olga Bushueva "Bushuev Effect", "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2017. — 28 September. ↑ Olga Bushueva "Bushuev Effect", "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2017. — 28 September. ↑ Elena Kovaleva, Alexander Bushuev: I feel sorry for those who have no friends // "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2014. — September 16. ↑ Elena Kovaleva, Alexander Bushuev: I feel sorry for those who have no friends // "Pskovskaya Pravda". — 2014. — September 16. ↑ Ofonareli // "Pskovskaya Pravda" — 2011. — 12 Dec. ↑ In the Pechora district the restored chapel of the Prophet Elijah will be opened // Pskov Information Agency. — 2014. — July 31.

Mass media [edit | edit the code]

"Indian on a Guitarocycle". Radio interview "Mediametrix". "Take the snow-white canvas..." Alexander Bushuev does not take the brush when he's upset... and for this reason people smile so much at his exhibitions. Bushuev Effect Heaven and pure love. An exhibition of Alexander Bushuev "Ivan-tea" was opened in Pskov Alexander Bushuev: I feel sorry for those who have no friends... Alexander Bushuev: "National recognition", the option necessary in any society. The society of friendship "Neuss (Germany) — Pskov" and Alexander Bushuyev agreed on cultural exchange. Birthday of the State Museum "Tsarskoye Selo Collection". "Echo of Moscow" in Pskov": "The Other Side": the artist, founder of the Pskov motorcycle club "Positive Mechanics" Alexander Bushuev. "Mitek" Alexander Bushuev invites you to a party "The long road, real friends, bikes and rock-n-roll..." Alexander Bushuev: I try to visit Vladimir Kuzmin's concerts In the village of Mitkovitsy, Pechory district, the restored temple was solemnly opened The restored temple in Mitkovitsy will be opened in August this year. Thanks to the biker community "Positive Mechanics" and personally to Alexander Bushuyev, the cross was set on the site of the chapel. The exhibition "Mitki and the Russian Statehood" was opened in the Pskov Museum Respect! To create for the Benevolence. Pskov bikers will ride orphanages on their motorcycles. Contests, prizes and gifts are waiting for kids. Wonderful people — blacksmiths of Pskov Blacksmith's yard and the founder of the Pskov motor club "Positive mechanics" Alexander Bushuev. Ofonareli. Pechory. The world's first Monument to the lantern. Pskov club "Positive mechanics" presents the Christmas show to the pupils of Opochetskaya correctional boarding school. The virtuoso guitarist Alexander Lyapin will give in Pskov solo concert devoted to "POP-MECHANICS".

(List of illustrations):

Anatoly Yelizarov with the scholar Sasha Bushuev. Orient. 2009. Alexander Bushuev. "St. Petersburg Ice Flow", 2013. Oil on canvas, 70x50 cm, the Museum of Modern Art POP-UP MUSEUM. Moscow, Butlerova street, 17, design BC "NEO GEO". Alexander Bushuev. "Grey Silence", 2014. Cardboard, oil, acrylic, 65х45, see the Modern Art Museum POP UP MUSEUM. Moscow, Butlerova street, 17, design BC "NEO GEO". Alexander Bushuev. "The City", 2015. Hardboard, oil, acrylic, 80 x 40 cm, the Museum of Modern Art POP-UP MUSEUM. Moscow, Butlerova street, 17, design BC "NEO GEO". Alexander Bushuev. "Palace Square", 2015. Oil on canvas, acrylic, 50x70 cm, the Museum of Modern Art POP-UP MUSEUM. Moscow, Butlerova street, 17, design BC "NEO GEO". Alexander Bushuev. "Maestro", 2015. Canvas, oil, acrylic, 70x50 cm, the Museum of Modern Art POP-UP MUSEUM. Moscow, Butlerova street, 17, design BC "NEO GEO". Alexander Bushuev. "Regatta", 2016. Acrylic on canvas, 70x50 cm, the Museum of Modern Art POP-UP MUSEUM. Moscow, Butlerova street, 17, design BC "NEO GEO". Alexander Bushuev. "Gimme a smoke", 2016. Canvas, oil, acrylic, 70x50 cm, the Museum of Modern Art POP-UP MUSEUM. Moscow, Butlerova street, 17, design BC "NEO GEO". Alexander Bushuev. "Tablet and Smartphone", 2017. Hardboard, oil, acrylic, 50x40 cm, Pskov state United Historical-architectural and Art Museum-reserve, Pskov, ul Nekrasova, d 7. Alexander Bushuev. "Clown" by 2017. Oil on canvas, 50x100 cm

(Photos): "I've got one of the favorite subjects. It's the Clown who climbs up the rope, climbs and climbs. I probably have painted 3 or 4 versions. In my childhood, when everybody were dreaming of becoming firemen or astronauts, I dreamed of becoming a Clown. So maybe this is my real self".

The visit of the Pskov motor club "Positive Mechanics" to Opochetskaya correctional boarding school on 24 December 2016. In the foreground — Alexander Bushuev. In the middle ground — "Indian on a Guitarocycle", the same embroidered image on biker race jacket.

"Monument Lantern". Gift of Alexander Bushueva to the city of Pechory. Photo: Totbereg Communications, 2016.

"Monument Lantern" (fragment). Photo: Totbereg Communications, 2016.

The temple-chapel in the village of Mitkovitsy, Pechory district of Pskov region, restored in 2014 by the zeal of the inhabitants.