Biography

Andrei Belle was born in 1957 in Minsk. Since his birth, he lived and studied in Leningrad, now
St Petersburg. From 1975 to 1977, he served in the Soviet Army. In 1977, he went straight from
the army into the V. I. Mukhina Leningrad Higher School of Commercial Art. He began to
exhibit his work while still at the institute. Upon graduating and being professionally assigned
to the Lot Central Research Institute, he started work as an independent artist — a painter and
graphic artist. From the mid-1980s onwards, he drew closer to musical circles: from 1985 to
1992, he worked with the Akvarium rock group. In 1988, he was in charge of the group’s charity
concerts for the Soviet Cultural Foundation in order to erect a monument to Petr Tchaikovsky.
From 1988 to 1992, he exhibited and worked with the Mitki group. Once perestroika had begun,
he was much exhibited both in Russia and worldwide — in the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany,
Belgium, Holland and France, promoting Russian art, which was not too popular during the
post-perestroika period in Europe and America.
His friendship with stage artistes and musicians, particularly with Andrei Makarevich, prompted
him to take part in many musical projects as an artist, resulting in designs for Makarevich’s
albums The Songs I Love (1996), The Cardboard Wings of Love (1996), Megamix (1996),
The Woman’s Album (1998), Etcetera (2002), The Thin Scar on My Favourite Bum (2003),
The Songs of Bulat Okudzhava (2005); Maxim Leonidov’s album Let’s Have a Smoke (2001);
Jean Tatlian’s two albums Night Coach and Russian Blues (2001), and so on.
His participation in charity auctions, e. g. Sotheby’s Cow Parade in 2005 and the Milost
Foundation’s auction in St Petersburg in 2007, enabled considerable amounts of money to be
collected for sick children. In 2001, the artist was awarded the title of “Master” during the
Master Class project directed by Mikhail Piotrovsky. In 2007, the President of the Russian Federation
decreed that Andrei Belle should be decorated with the Order for Services to the Fatherland,
2nd class.