Dmitry Vrubel: biography, photos, paintings

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Dmitry Vrubel is a Russian artist whose most famous work is the "God! Help me survive this mortal love" graffiti, also called the "Brotherly Kiss" graffiti on the Berlin Wall.

The start of the journey

Dmitry Vrubel was born in 1960. His parents were engineers, but he himself chose the career of an artist. At the age of fifteen, he created his first painting, called "The Judgment of Pilate". At the same young age, he helped to publish a literary newspaper, tried to write poetry.

He studied at different times with famous artists: in 1976 with Mikhail Epstein, in 1977 with Andrei Panchenko, from 1977 to 1980 with Vladimir Ovchinnikov.

In 1979, the hero of our article left the Lenin Pedagogical Institute in Moscow, and in 1983 he already received recognition, entered the Union of Artists.

Tipping point in life

In 1986, his wife left Dmitry Vladimirovich Vrubel, and the artist himself calls this time a turning point in his life. He hit his head inwork, began to actively paint and transformed his modest workshop into the Vrubel Gallery. In 1990 he settled in Berlin, and three years later he became a member of the Union of Artists in Berlin. For the next five years, artist Dmitry Vrubel traveled around the world. Traveled to Dusseldorf, Chicago, Paris and other places. As he himself admitted, it was difficult for him to communicate with foreigners, because they treated people from the Soviet Union as holy fools. Now Dmitry Vrubel says that the foreigners were right, the Soviet artists really looked and communicated somehow wildly.

Private life

Since his wife left him in 1986, the artist has tried not to have any more romantic relationships. He and his wife had three children: Mikhail, Natalya, Alexander (Alexander already has a son, Mikhail, the grandson of the hero of the article).

However, almost ten years later, Dmitry Vladimirovich Vrubel, a Russian artist, nevertheless found his destiny, and at the same time his co-author - Victoria Timofeeva. Together they created many masterpieces, held a large number of exhibitions, mainly in Germany, and most importantly, they gave birth to a son, Artyom.

Victoria Timofeeva admits that shortly before meeting Dmitry Vrubel, she became a widow, her husband was killed on the street by some bandits. She was completely broken, did not plan to start any relationship, but in April 1995 her artist friends called Victoria to the opening day, where she met a terribly drunk man, who turned out to be Dmitry. Girlfriendadvised Victoria to take a closer look at him, since, in her opinion, they are very, very suitable for each other. Initially, Victoria was skeptical about this, but soon noticed that, in fact, her friend was right. They no longer parted and almost immediately settled together.

Creativity

Dmitry Vrubel considers himself a political painter. This is not surprising, given that the painting “Brotherly Kiss”, which he left on the Berlin Wall in 1990, brought him national fame. The graffiti depicts Brezhnev and Honecker merging in a passionate kiss.

Dmitry Vrubel never paints from nature, always from photographs. He tries to write on the topic "Russian people". He himself says that he is ready for anything to achieve the recognition of all people, so that his painting is loved and understood by both the cleaner and the minister.

His paintings are exhibited in galleries in Berlin, Warsaw, Dusseldorf, Montenegro, Copenhagen, Moscow and others.

He held a large number of exhibitions, projects, both alone and together with Victoria Timofeeva.

One of the most important events in his creative life, Dmitry considers the joint exhibition "Home Album" opened in 1996 in the Vrubel Gallery with Viktoria Timofeeva.

Moving to Germany for permanent residence

In 2010, Dmitry Vrubel, together with Victoria Timofeeva, finally moved to Berlin. According to the official version, this happened becauseAfter the Georgian War, it became difficult for artists in Russia. In fact, the couple have been thinking about moving since 1996. Already at that time, they received most of the money for their work (about 75%) from Western organizations. Then they thought about whether to move or stay, and yet they chose the second option.

In 2010, Dmitry Vrubel looked into the rating of the Artchroniki magazine and found himself in 24th place. Then he realized that he had already reached the ceiling in Russian art. I didn’t have to think long about where to move, in Berlin they loved him since 1990. It was only necessary to solve all the problems, apply for German citizenship and resettle.

Community activities

Dmitry Vrubel, among other things, is involved in charity work. In 2004, he allocated $55,000 to set up a children's art school in Beslan. In 2007, he donated $20,000 to build an orphanage in the city of Suzdal.

Signed a letter in defense of Erofeev, who organized the exhibition "Forbidden Art-2006".

Famous relative of Dmitry Vrubel

As the artist himself admits, he was told from childhood that Mikhail Vrubel was only his namesake. Dmitry's father left the family when he was still a child, so no one could tell little Dima the truth about his origin.

But many years later, in 2004, Dmitry met with his father, who told him the story of his paternal family. It turns out that the artist's grandfather was Mikhail's great-nephew. Alexandrovich Vrubel, and therefore Dmitry is his great-grandnephew.

In general, as Dmitry Vrubel says, the great artist Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel is his relative. The man admits that he is pleased that Mikhail's works are in the Tretyakov Gallery on Lavrushinsky, and Dmitry's paintings are in the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val.