Dmitri Vrubel

Dmitri Vrubel (1960–2022) was a Russian artist and a leading figure of the Sots Art movement, best known internationally for The Brotherly Kiss on the Berlin Wall. He was born on 14 July 1960 in Moscow and studied at the graphic-art department of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. He painted his first canvas, The Judgement of Pilate, in 1975, at the age of fifteen, and belonged to the generation of Soviet nonconformist artists who worked outside official channels and organised independent exhibitions.

In 1990, in the months after the Berlin Wall opened, Vrubel painted “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love” on the East Side Gallery — the work that made his name known worldwide. He settled and worked in Berlin, which remained his home for the rest of his life.

Vrubel’s work reached far beyond that single mural. Political figures, power, and Soviet and post-Soviet history recur throughout his painting and drawing — from the “12 Moods of the President” and the “Putiniana” series to the large “Gospel Project,” the “Artist’s Diary,” and projects such as the “Orgy of Humanism,” “Tolstoevsky,” “Big People” and “Portrait of the Era.” Much of this work grew out of a diary-based method, treating the daily flow of media and political imagery as material for painting.

Over his career Vrubel took part in more than sixty exhibitions in Russia, Germany, France and the United States. He was a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR from 1983 and of the Association of Berlin Artists from 1993. His works are held in public collections including the State Tretyakov Gallery and the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Moscow and the Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

Dmitri Vrubel died in Berlin on 13 August 2022, aged 62.

Born

14 July 1960, Moscow

Died

13 August 2022, Berlin

Known for

The Brotherly Kiss (East Side Gallery, 1990)

Lived and worked

Moscow · Berlin

Selected works