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The Power of the Paintbrush: How Revolutionary Art Manifests Through Reproduction

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The Power of the Paintbrush: How Revolutionary Art Manifests Through Reproduction The Power of the Paintbrush: How Revolutionary Art Manifests Through Reproduction Mauricio Lozano 03 May 2019 HUM 104 Dr. Denham pledged. Lozano 1 “Brotherly Kiss” Painting, Tretyakov Gallery - Moscow, Russia While on a trip to Russia with my Humanities class at Davidson College, I found myself in Moscow at the Tretyakov Gallery. As I rounded a corner in one of the exhibits, I was taken back by the painting pictured above. Upon my arrival in Russia, I had a very interesting conversation with one of my professors where I learned that Russia has a rather complicated relationship with homosexuality, typically discouraging its openness in the public sphere. Yet, Lozano 2 here I was staring at the largest mural of two men kissing I had ever seen. I struggled to understand the meaning behind this piece in the context of its exhibit and its place in the museum as a whole. As my speculation and questioning continued, I looked closer and noticed that the painting was titled, Brotherly Kiss. In what seemed to be an image of homoeroticism, depicting ​ ​ two lovers engaged in a passionate kiss, there persisted a title that suggested otherwise. I initially mistook the painting as a commentary on the view of homosexuality in contemporary Russia. However, upon further research, I found that this work is a symbol of the communist regime and the connection between Socialist states. This painting is a copy of a mural by artist Dmitri Vrubel, which he painted on the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall after its collapse. The painting depicts a Socialist fraternal kiss between former Soviet Union General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev and former Socialist Unity Party General Secretary, Erich Honecker. The Socialist Fraternal Kiss is a special form of greeting between the statesmen of Communist countries.1 The practice is meant to demonstrate the closeness and good relations between Socialist states.2 This embrace grew in popularity throughout the Cold War, especially among Communist leaders in Eastern Europe because they felt that it conveyed the exclusive nature of the connection they shared under the communist regime. The practice found its origin in the Easter Kiss, characteristic to the Eastern Orthodox Church.3 The kiss became a prominent ritual among the leaders of communist countries, standing as a symbol of equality, fraternity, and solidarity.4 The Socialist Fraternal Kiss was introduced into popular culture when a photograph 1 Belton, Pádraig, and Lana Citron. "The Politics of the Kiss." America's Current Affairs & ​ Politics Magazine. February 11, 2016. Accessed April 26, 2019. 2 Belton, Pádraig, and Lana Citron. ​ 3 Belton, Pádraig, and Lana Citron. ​ 4 Belton, Pádraig, and Lana Citron. ​ Lozano 3 was taken, capturing the aforementioned image of Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev locking lips at the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic in East Berlin in 1979. It was said photo that inspired Dmitri Vrubel’s Berlin Wall mural entitled, My God, Help Me to Survive ​ This Deadly Love. The Berlin Wall was erected in Berlin, Germany, on August 13, 1961, effectively splitting the city into two halves: the Communist East and the Democratic West. This political tension and divisiveness sparked immense dissatisfaction in the public sphere and epitomized the conflict of the Cold War. Opposition and protest to the wall manifested itself in varying ways, but the most notable came from the graffiti and street art which was explicitly plastered onto the wall itself. Dmitri Vrubel was most incessant on creating a piece that displayed complete love on a medium that stood for divisiveness and hate—a playing of opposites characteristic of political satire. When asked about the mural’s location on the Berlin Wall, Vrubel Remarked, “In this painting, there's one German and one Russian, and the Berlin Wall is about the same thing but in reverse: here [in the painting], there's total love, while the Berlin Wall separates two worlds — it was a perfect fit.”5Although Dmitri Vrubel claims that the painting is about love and not politics6 (perhaps tongue in cheek) it is clear to see how the painting acted as a symbol of communism’s corruption and ultimate failure. The piece provided a medium for social dialogue on one of the most controversial landmarks in all of history. But, what led a piece of this nature to be reproduced and thrown up in a museum in Moscow, Russia? Furthermore, How does this displacement manifest in the piece and affect its overall meaning? In this essay, I will use Dmitri 5 Borzenko, Andrey. “Brotherly Love: 25 Years on, the Artist behind the Iconic Berlin Wall ​ Mural Tells His Story.” The Calvert Journal. 6 Paterson, Tony. 2014. “The Stolen Kiss: The Berlin Wall Mural Is Erased.” The Independent. ​ Independent Digital News and Media. April 3, 2014. Lozano 4 Vrubel’s revolutionary mural, My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love to argue that the ​ ​ commodification and reproduction of art misconstrue the original nature of a piece and reduces it to a form of ubiquity that would not occur otherwise. We currently live in what some have called “the age of digital reproduction.”7 Along with the exponential growth of technology and ease of access to art mediums, there has come a decreased value for the craftsmanship and originality that comes along with artistic expression. The desire for increased output in the art industry has resulted in both digital and manmade copies of art to be passed off as equal or representative of their original counterparts. These forgeries are nothing more than “fraudulent imitations”8 that fail to capture the entire essence of a piece of art. It is simply impossible to convey the same character of a piece outside of the circumstances that prompted the artist to create it in the first place. Walter Benjamin referenced this exact shortcoming in his famous essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ​ Reproduction, when he argued, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in ​ one element: its presence in time and space—its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.”9 This detriment is emphasized in the replicative efforts of Berlin Wall art, especially in Dmitri Vrubel’s My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love. ​ The mural, which had been displayed in the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall, was eventually erased and Vrubel was commissioned to repaint his iconic work. In regards to this restorative effort, Vrubel himself remarked, “I suddenly realised that in the collective memory 7 Charney, Noah. "Has the Incredible Accuracy of Art Reproduction Ruined the Way We ​ Experience Masterpieces?" Smithsonian.com. August 23, 2016. 8 Charney, Noah. ​ 9 Benjamin, Walter, and James Amery. Underwood. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ​ ​ Reproduction, 220. Lozano 5 my painting had been preserved in its original state, but I myself didn't remember how I had painted it...it’s hard to repeat something like that”10 Works such as Vrubel’s created at the prospect of such controversy and political turmoil demonstrate the extent to which an artist’s raw passion and human experience can bleed into and fuel the artwork. This is something that Vrubel himself had trouble replicating the second time around. The Berlin Wall was notorious for hosting these thought-provoking, politically-charged pieces of street art aimed at social mobilization and spurring opposition to the communist regime. These works meshed together the public and political sphere to craft a commentary on the human experience under an oppressive government system that would eventually split a country in two. In her essay, The Politics of ​ Humor: The Berlin Wall in Jokes and graffiti, Mary Beth Stein professed, “The Berlin Wall was ​ key in proving the relationship between political structure, social experience, and folkloric expression.”11 The protest art movement which began on the Berlin wall proved that graffiti and street art can act as a trigger of public discourse and democratic interaction to discuss the power structures which control and subjugate a common people.12 The street art served as a mouthpiece for public opinion that often times would not be communicated otherwise. It is for this reason that it is commonly held as “the voice of the oppressed.”13 Yet, when the voice that speaks life into the piece is removed, we are left with a repeated, ubiquitous thing. I refer of course, to the 10 Borzenko, Andrey. “Brotherly Love: 25 Years on, the Artist behind the Iconic Berlin Wall ​ Mural Tells His Story.” The Calvert Journal. Accessed March 28, 2019. 11 Stein, Mary Beth. “The Politics of Humor: The Berlin Wall in Jokes and Graffiti.” Western ​ ​ Folklore 48, no. 2 (April 1989): 85. ​ 12 Heinsohn, Bastian. "Critical Voices from the Underground: Street Art and Urban ​ Transformation in Berlin." In Envisioning Social Justice in Contemporary German Culture, ​ ​ edited by Twark Jill E. and Hildebrandt Axel, Boydell and Brewer, 2015 119. 13 Heinsohn, 119. ​ Lozano 6 commodification of these street art masterpieces, especially My God, Help Me to Survive This ​ Deadly Love. Beyond the replica that I viewed in the Tretyakov Gallery, Dmitri Vrubel’s iconic mural has been commodified and reinvented for all intents and purposes—especially as a piece of iconography for magnets, mugs, shirts, handbags, etc. Bruderkuss Coffee Mug14 Bruderkuss Tote Bag15 Beyond this, the ambiguity of this piece has been exploited to craft satirical works in today’s society in which other individuals than Honecker and Brezhnev are depicted. Most recently, the mural format has been copied to parallel Cold War totalitarian leaders to current 14 Zazzle. "Bruderkuss Coffee Mug." Advertisement.
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