Dmitry Vrubel

Dusseldorf, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Jerusalem, Israel Musem, BiNATIONALE, 1991

Moscow, Central House of Artists, BiNATIONALE, 1992

Bologna, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, a Mosca… a Mosca…, 1992

Achille Bonito Oliva and Leonid Bazanov, Eds., a Mosca… a Mosca…, Verona 1992, ill. in colour p. 161

Dmitry Vrubel was part of the Moscow underground art scene in the 80s. The presented lot was conceived in 1989 as part of the installation to take place in the artist’s Moscow flat- his private gallery that the artist called “Flat Art”. Entitled My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love, the installation explored various facets of forbidden love and release of political inhibitions during the prevalent climate of perestroika. The entire installation was later reproduced in 1991 in the  Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and included another lot in the sale- Lot 329 - depicting the love of Marlon Brando in the role of a German officer and a Jewish girl in The Young Lions(1958).

In the presented lot Vrubel reinterpreted the infamous photograph by Regis Bossu of Leonid Brezhnev locking East German President Erich Honecker in an embrace to commemorate the 30 year anniversary of GDR on October 1st 1979 (fig. 1). The idea for this painting was later used as a prototype for the artist’s famous mural painted on a piece of the Berlin Wall right after its collapse in 1990 (fig. 2). Along with other murals the stretch of the wall became known as the East Side Gallery and attracted millions of tourists from across the world. Controversially enlarging the faces of two kissing men Vrubel inscribed his mural in Russian and German- Господи! Помоги мне выжить среди этой смертной любви. Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben, thereby highlighting the irony of the image. Even though the artist claims that his work was about love, and not intended as a political gesture, it became a signifier of political change and new freedom.

The Berlin mural was later destroyed by the authorities and the artist invited back to repeat the work using more durable paints in 2009. Thus the presented work is the only remaining depiction of Fraternal Kiss from its time. This rare painting carries the legacy of the iconic image it depicts and symbolises one of the most significant events of the late 20^th century- the fall of the Berlin Wall.