Dmitri Vrubel
Artist of The Brotherly Kiss on the Berlin Wall — one of the most recognised works of political art of the twentieth century.
The Flagship Work
“My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love”
In 1990, on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall, Dmitri Vrubel painted Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German leader Erich Honecker in the socialist fraternal kiss. Known worldwide as The Brotherly Kiss, it became a defining image of the end of the Cold War.
The Brotherly Kiss, 1990 version
The Artist
A life across Moscow and Berlin
Born in Moscow in 1960, Dmitri Vrubel belonged to the generation of Soviet nonconformist artists. The 1990 mural made his name known worldwide; Berlin became his home until his death in 2022. Power, politics and history run through all of his painting.
Dmitri Vrubel at his work on the East Side Gallery
The Work
Selected works
Beyond the Wall — political portraits, the Gospel Project and the Artist’s Diary.
Berlin Wall fresco
Thank You, Andrei Sakharov
1990 · approx. 7.5 × 3.6 m
A monochrome fresco on the East Side Gallery showing the death mask of physicist and human-rights laureate Andrei Sakharov, with the inscription “Danke, Andrej Sacharow.”
“Putiniana” project
Putin the Judoist
2001
From the “Putiniana” series — a media image of the president in a pop-art idiom, continuing the artist’s calendar “Twelve Moods of the President.”
“Gray Exhibition” project
Vika and Marlon Brando
early 1990s
An interpretation of the Marlon Brando cinematic myth in the visual language of late-Soviet Moscow. The original was sold at Sotheby’s; exhibited in Moscow, 1992.
Collect
Limited editions
Museum-quality giclée editions on canvas, signed by the artist’s heir and issued with a certificate of authenticity. Available by enquiry.
