https://mathiasrusch-metaverse.com/

The "Our Father" - The cycle of paintings by artist Mathias Rusch (*1927-2003).

If there is a most important prayer of Christian faith, then it must be the "Our Father".

This prayer gift of Jesus to his disciples, later handed down to us Christians, has become the actual Christian self-understanding, the "prayer of the Lord". Packed into a few sentences, it has come to be regarded as the actual confession of faith and is prayed millions of times a day, both individually and in communities. The fact that this "conversation with God" has hardly ever been depicted (in contrast to the Passion) is probably due to the immense message it conveys. The fact that the painter Mathias Rusch dared to translate the "Our Father" can be explained by the fact that his daily work was based on faith, hope, and trust in God. Mathias Rusch was aware that he could only exist in the understanding of his art "as a gift of God". Most of his late works (Our Father, Live and Let Live, Sermon on the Mount, Lauretan Litany, Litany of the Sacred Heart) were written, as he confessed, under the "kind help" of the Highest, always accompanied by personal prayers, meditations or invocations. The fact that Mathias Rusch did not reveal a word for the interpretation of his works of art is to be justified by the fact that he understood himself to a large extent as a mediator of a higher power. Thus we are sometimes quite helplessly confronted with an immense abundance of Christian symbols, metaphysical allusions, concretizations, and abstractions, in unique hues and compositions. Completely in the sense of Mathias Rusch we dive before the 13 works of art into the enormous topic of earthly existence and Christian eschatology, marvel before the color power, before the hints, confessions, and convictions of the very deeply felt "Our Father's". Finally, we become humbled and ultimately grateful to be initiated into the world-prayer of a "knowing" believer, again and again, with each glance at each of these magnificent works of art. Whoever takes a longer "eye" look at this self-contained, unique complete work, consisting of 13 unique pieces in oil on canvas, 170x170cm, will not be able to resist a lasting effect and deep consternation.