Leonid Afremov Biography and His Magical Brush

BIOGRAPHY

Leonid Afremov was born on July 12, 1955, in Vitebsk, Belarus, former Soviet Union.

His father was a designer and shoe manufacturer. His mother worked in a metal factory.

Leonid Afremov was raised in a traditional Jewish home.

In school, he had good grades and always interested in history and art.

He attended all possible classes offered and had private lessons with local artists.

His parents noticed his talent for painting at a young age and encouraged him to develop and improve it.

Due to his strong Jewish roots and the growing anti-Semitism in Russia, the Afremov family struggled to live freely in that country.

This did not prevent him from concentrating on his artistic productions and research, he discovered and became fascinated by the works of Picasso, Dali, and Modigliani.

In 1978, he graduated from the Vitebsk Art School, thus building his experience by painting a lot and participating in various exhibitions.

Despite this, his talent only reached its true peak when he moved to Israel in 1990, after growing tensions in Russia.

Already married and with a child, the move was not easy, as Afremov struggled to establish himself with his family, they faced a lot of oppression due to their Russian heritage.

The artist worked in various jobs to survive and continued to paint in his spare time.

He faced a negative reaction in Israel when he tried to sell his paintings to art galleries, considering that his work had no value, as he was a 'Russian immigrant'.

Disheartened by the lack of sales, it was his son Dmitry who came up with the idea of selling his paintings directly to people, and it was he who gave him the idea of selling his works through different means.

Thus, the artist developed a special talent for selling his paintings directly to people, without involving art galleries or intermediaries.

In January 2002, a subsequent move to the United States led to over a hundred paintings that were available for sale.

Afremov was forced to paint only limited themes and subjects to survive with his family.

There was no space for artistic freedom when he had to put food on the table.

Leonid Afremov had good opportunities in New York, but the cold climate affected his health.

He was constantly struggling with arthritis and muscle pain caused by drastic temperature changes.

So, he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in April of the same year.

The rest of the family joined him a few months later.

In Florida, Afremov faced the same challenges as in New York, only a few themes and subjects were accepted, he had no inspiration for creation, something he really wanted to paint.

He had to paint what the galleries wanted and could sell.

He faced a difficult dilemma, painting what he wanted and starving to death or painting what the galleries suggested.

In 2004, he tried to sell some paintings at an auction and immediately achieved a magnificent success.

The paintings were sold for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars.

He was able to forget the pressure of making a sale and explore himself as an artist.

However, due to negative experiences with galleries, Leonid preferred to sell directly to collectors.

From 2005, he began to travel to the Caribbean, Mexico, and after having spent three holidays in the same region, in March 2010, he decided to retire to take care of his health and move definitively to Playa del Carmen, one of the paradisiacal places in Mexico where the artist fell in love.

His children, who also decided to follow their father, began to manage his virtual gallery and commercialize the sale and shipping from Playa del Carmen to the world.

In 2011, Leonid Afremov acquired a farm near Puerto Morelos, where he lived and spent most of his time due to medical advice.

Due to a heart attack, he died at 64 on August 19, 2019, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Today, his works are commercialized online, as the artist always defended the idea of having his works accessible to everyone.

The MOMA considers him one of the greatest and most known modern impressionists of our time.

His paintings reached numerous private homes and galleries around the world.

Leonid and his work

Despite the struggles and political tensions he faced, his paintings convey the vibration of a mind eager to express itself.

His work does not present hidden meanings or messages, as it evokes emotions and not a narrative.

It is a world within a world, each painting transmits a feeling.

GALLERY OF SOME WORKS

The most used themes by Afremov are urban landscapes, where we can find with more frequency nocturnal scenes with rainy weather.

In these conditions, the images reflect the water on the ground under the lights of low posts and illuminated facades, mixing bright colors with more sober colors, which represents the night.

We have in Paris of My Dreams a good example of the approach to color explored by Afremov.

The painting presents simple brushstrokes in the foreground, while in the nocturnal sky we find the spatulated that is common in his work.

The colored tones are not real, but they also fit and seem to belong to the place that is the main postcard of Paris.