Andreas Felger created this cycle in 1989 on behalf of Pastor Heinz-Günther Gasche, Chairman of the Board of the Diaconal Centre Hesse and Nassau, for the regional office in Frankfurt am Main, where it hung in the entrance area for many years.
In his artistic exploration of the Seven Works of Mercy, the act of mercy as identification with the suffering (misericordia) was particularly important to Andreas Felger, which he expresses in the technique of woodcutting. The many sweeping cut lines that can be seen in each picture in the cycle, sometimes more, sometimes less, not only outline the people depicted, but also place them in a dynamic relationship in which identification becomes recognisable. This is particularly visible in the painting Releasing Prisoners, in which the shackles are combined with the active arms of those releasing them and it is no longer possible to tell who is actually shackled and who is releasing the shackles. Or in the painting Visiting the Sick, in which the contoured lines of the bedspread merge with the contours of the visitor’s clothing. All of these are indications of identification with those in need.
Andreas Felger deliberately chose the technique of woodcut for this theme (and not watercolour or oil painting), firstly because the woodcut, with its rough and fissured surface structure, picks up on and emphasises the chosen theme on a haptic level, and secondly because the woodcut does not allow any corrections. Cuts have to be right. What is removed from the wood is gone and cannot be corrected or reattached afterwards. In this respect, doing the right thing artistically correlates with the subject matter, because a work of mercy on a specific person in a specific hour cannot be corrected either. Either the work takes place at a given and responsible time or it is missed. It is no longer possible to make up for it.
Andreas Felger has created various groups of works and cycles that form thematic units. In the sense of travelling exhibitions, they are available on request from the foundation’s holdings for loan.
