Famous graffiti artist Kiss has been linked to a moment in history showing Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing the President of the German Democratic Republic, Erich Honecker. The incident was reported from Berlin as a death in the German media on Monday.
Dmitri Vrubel, born in Moscow in 1960, was a Russian plastic artist whose most celebrated work captured the Berlin Wall in the spring of 1991, soon after its partial destruction. Since then, the piece has become a principal tourist draw in the German capital for visitors from around the world.
The artwork is situated on the portion of the wall known as the East Side Gallery. The image portrays Brezhnev and Honecker sharing a kiss on the lips, accompanied by a caption written in German and Russian that reads Lord help me get rid of this deadly love.
The mural was removed in 2009 as part of the wall’s restoration and later recreated at the request of local officials. It drew inspiration from a 1979 photograph that captured two Communist leaders celebrating decades of the GDR’s existence.
In 2001, Vrubel and his wife, Victoria Timofeyeva, who is also an artist, created a calendar featuring portraits of Vladimir Putin. The collection, dubbed Putin’s 12 Moods, unexpectedly became a bestseller in Russia.
Descended from the pioneer of modernism Mikhail Vrubel, the artist has lived in Berlin since 1990 and has recently been involved with the Pirate Party. He passed away due to heart complications after contracting Covid-19 in the past week, at the age of 62.