![Wrubel Bruderkuss neu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Wrubel_Bruderkuss_neu.JPG)
Dmitri Vladimirovich Vrubel (; 14 July 1960 – 14 August 2022) was a Russian painter. He was best known for his
East Side Gallery
The East Side Gallery (german: East-Side-Gallery) memorial in Berlin-Friedrichshain is a permanent open-air gallery on the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall in Mühlenstraße between the Berlin Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke alon ...
-painting ''
My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love
''My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love'' (russian: «Го́споди! Помоги́ мне вы́жить среди́ э́той сме́ртной любви́», Góspodi! Pomogí mne výzhit' sredí étoy smértnoy lyubví; german: Me ...
'', depicting the kissing
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
leaders
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
and
Erich Honecker
Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...
.
Vrubel was born in Moscow,
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. His surname is a
russification
Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
of the common Polish surname
Wróbel.
Early life
He was the only child of two engineers. He started painting at 15 and studied at the graphic art department of the
Moscow State V.I. Lenin Pedagogical Institute.
Work
Vrubel's most famous work is the
graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
piece, painted on the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
entitled ''
My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love
''My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love'' (russian: «Го́споди! Помоги́ мне вы́жить среди́ э́той сме́ртной любви́», Góspodi! Pomogí mne výzhit' sredí étoy smértnoy lyubví; german: Me ...
'' which depicts the kissing communist leaders
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
and
Erich Honecker
Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...
.
It was inspired by a
photograph
A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
captured by photographer
Regis Bossu depicting a
socialist fraternal kiss
The socialist fraternal kiss was a special form of greeting between socialist leaders. The act demonstrated the special connection that exists between socialist countries, consisting of an embrace, along with a series of three kisses on alterna ...
between the leaders
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet Union, Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gener ...
and
Erich Honecker
Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...
in 1979, during a celebration of the 30 years of the
GDR
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
.
In 2009, the painting was removed by the authorities as part of a cleaning effort in order to have it repainted by Vrubel.
Other works
In 2001, he and his wife, Viktoria Timofeyeva, created a large format calendar containing portraits of Russian President
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
called "The 12 moods of Putin".
Each page of the calendar portrayed a different image of Putin and was an unexpected hit with the Moscow population.
Death
Vrubel died in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
from complications of
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
on 14 August 2022, at the age of 62.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vrubel, Dmitri
1960 births
2022 deaths
Artists from Moscow
20th-century Russian painters
Russian male painters
21st-century Russian painters
Kandinsky Prize
Russian people of Polish descent
20th-century Russian male artists
21st-century Russian male artists
Moscow State Pedagogical University alumni
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany