Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F088809-0038, Berlin, East Side Gallery

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 alo ...

-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 ...

leaders

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...

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 post ...

. Vrubel was born in Moscow,

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. 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 Wróbel ( ; meaning "Old World sparrow, sparrow") is a Polish surname. The same surname is sometimes spelled Wrubel or Vrubel, reflecting its pronunciation. Czech, Slovak, and Slovene cognates include Vrabel, Vrabec, and Brabec. People * Adolf Wr ...

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 entitled ''

'' which depicts the kissing communist leaders

and

. 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 creat ...

captured by photographer

Regis Bossu Regis or Régis may refer to: People * Regis (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Regis (musician), full name Karl O'Connor, an English ...

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

and

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 German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

. 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 m ...

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 Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

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 identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

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