Today the Berlin wall is the world’s longest open-air art gallery where you can see paintings by Russian artists too. We would like to tell you about these pictures
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Whereas the original Berlin Wall was a physical border between the GDR and West Berlin, today it is the world's longest open-air art gallery with a permanent exhibition. // Theodor Tezhik "The big Kremlin's wind"
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The East Side Gallery, a 1.3 km section of the wall, was painted by 118 artists from 21 countries, including the Soviet Union, the U.S., Chile, India, Iran, and many countries of Europe. There are 106 paintings in total. // Mikhail Serebryakov "Diagonal problem-solving"
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However, the painting began before the Wall actually fell. Although the East side was not approachable, in the West it became a creative site for many artists, professional and amateur. // Shamil Gimaev "Untitled"
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By 1989 it had evolved into a kilometers-long — and highly artistic — graffiti exhibition. After its destruction, fragments of the wall soon became commodities. Many pieces ended up in the possession of U.S. institutions, including Microsoft, Langley (the CIA's headquarters), and the Ronald Reagan Museum, as well as in Fatima and other places. // SLAWA (Vyaches Shlyakhov) "Masks"
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Among the Soviet artists known to have taken part in painting the wall are Shamil Gimaev, Vyaches Shlyakhov, Irina Dubrovskaya, Mikhail Serebryakov, Andrey Taranin, Dmitry Vrubel, and Teodor Tezhik. // Alexey Taranin "Untitled"
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The iconic work of Dmitry Vrubel, "Lord, help me to survive this mortal love" (also known as "Brotherly Kiss"), which depicts a kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, is the most famous painting in the gallery, and one of the most famous pieces of graffiti anywhere in the world. // Dmitry Vrubel "Lord, help me to survive this mortal love"
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All the works somehow or other reflect political events in Germany in 1989-1990: be it the portrait of dissident and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov or the painting titled "The wall must crumble when the meteorite of love comes flying." // Dmitry Vrubel "Thank you, Andrey Sakharov"
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The East Side Gallery forms part of the Berlin Wall Memorial, which also houses a monument to all those who died trying to escape to the western part of the city, and the Chapel of Reconciliation on the site of the old Church of Reconciliation, which was blown up in 1985. // Irina Dubrovskaya "The wall must crumble when the meteorite of love comes flying"
