Dmitry Vrubel, creator of iconic Berlin Wall mural, dies at 62

Dmitry Vrubel, the Russian graffiti artist who painted the famous 1990 Berlin Wall mural depicting Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing East German communist chief Erich Honecker, has died at age 62 due to complications from COVID-19. His work, titled My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love, was created shortly after the Wall opened, when Vrubel had just arrived in East Berlin from Moscow at age thirty. The mural was removed by Berlin authorities in 2009, and Vrubel received €3,000 to reproduce it—the only financial gain he ever made from the image, despite its widespread use on souvenirs like mugs and postcards. The artwork was partly based on a 1979 press photograph by Régis Bossu. Earlier in his career in Russia, Vrubel organized illegal apartment exhibitions and joined the progressive art group Club d’Avant-Garde (KLAVA) in 1987. In 2001, he collaborated with his wife Viktoria Timofeyeva on The 12 Moods of Putin, a flip calendar featuring monthly line drawings of the Russian leader in various emotional states.