Dr. Egon Kapellari
Thoughts about Hermann Josef Falke
A few months before his death Hermann Josef Falke had a somehow fun and serious talk with his wife Renate at the cardio-vascular Clinic in Aachen, Germany, which followed the ironic pattern of the questionnaires presented to contemporaries by the FAZ (Newspaper of Frankfurt, Germany) in broad terms.
Ms Falke asked me to write about the religious aspect of those 37 questions and Falke’s answers to them. This invitation led to one of the first meetings with the painter and his work and the wish to continue the occupation with both.
The questions from the Frankfurt newspaper concern themselves in parts with so-called “Last Things”. Under this title Christian theology summarizes the subjects “Death”, “(Last) Judgment” and “Eternal Life”. Falke, however, managed to turn even those questions that did not allow for profound answers into little windows to the metaphysical.
“How would you like to die?” This question aims at one of the most important subjects of Falke’s life and work with which he had already concerned himself during his youth as a result of traumatic experiences during the war period.
Death, which he was waiting for now, seemed to Falke like a slow dying into the hands of God. He wanted to accept death following his Catholic belief that had been brought near to him and taught to him in the Westphalian Sauerland in a very enriching manner. Following the choral of the Evangelical Thomas-chanter Johann Sebastian Bach he wanted to say to God: “Before your throne, I now appear”. In a society that has almost entirely suppressed the “ars moriendi”, the “art of dying”, this attitude is especially valuable.
The sixth question aims at Falke’s “favorite person in history”. His answer is Jesus Christ. With a view to the oeuvre of the Westphalian artist, which repeatedly shows connections to Ancient Greece, one might remember a quiet quote from Friedrich Hölderlin, which lets Christ appear as the Greatest on the horizon of Greek Gods and heroes: “Heracles is like a prince and Bacchus like a commoner, Christ, however, is the End”.
The religious aspect that comes across in Falke’s paintings and writings currently has a difficult standing in Germany, the home country of this noble man, as is suggested by Hölderlin.
Nonetheless, it can wait for its return as it is stronger than any winter time trying to hide its glory. Similarly, also the paintings by Hermann Josef Falke can wait for the group of people who appreciate and are changed by them to grow. “During winter time, the bread grows”.
Catalogue: „Hermann Falke Our life is just a shadow“, Galerie-Galerija Falke Loibach / Libuče, 1997