Rejchrt, Pavel - VM - Pavel Rejchrt

Pavel Rejchrt: On the Threshold of Anastasis

Beyond the Horizon

by Pavel Rejchrt

This painting is called On the Threshold of Anastasis. I have deliberately used the Greek word for resurrection to prevent any speculation on reincarnation. The Christian faith expects, thanks to Christ´s victory over death, something different. Not just to return back to this life but rather to raise to another life. A celebrated life when there will be no birth and death and birth again but truly life over and above this alternation. A life redeemed from the circle of birth and passing away as well as from the woe over our deficiences and our outstanding debt to people and God for many good deeds. Nevertheless, in rare moments we reach the threshold of anastasis and anticipate raising from this misery – thanks to Christ.

The picture captures this anticipation in shapes and colours which defy any descripion. Rather, the overall composition and tension among the shapes and elements may bring us to a state of contemplation of these matters.

The second painting is called The Road – In the Evening is Our Hope. The symbol of the road is often present in my work. In this particular case it is a mysterious road. We pass through a strange country as if surrounded by creeping darkness. Our anxiety and imagination as well as our desire to experience beauty and adventure give rise to specific forms of a kind of impenetrable barrier composed, perhaps, of the crowns and stems of trees, of traces of the movement of the wind and of interlacing growth.

This is like wandering up to the irresistable vista in the distance beyond these complex configurations, when we are full of expectation of what is hiding behind the horizon, behind the last top. The road winding below the mass of disquieting forms is stony, cracked, arduous and lined with wild weed. But our view and step are always directed to the horizon. To the hope that fascinates.

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Pavel Rejchrt: On the Threshold of Anastasis, 1998, acrylics and oil on canvas, 85 x 115 cm.

Pavel Rejchrt: The Road – In the Evening is Our Hope, 2015, oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cm.

Pavel Rejchrt (b. 1942) is a Czech poet, writer and painter. He graduated from Comenius Theological Protestant University in Prague in 1966. He was awarded the status of a candidate of the Union of Czech Creative Artists in 1966. He creates paintings, drawings and linocuts. He has worked as a member of teams of artists restoring historical wall paintings, e.g. at the Lobkowitz Palace of the Prague Castle. He has designed and made wall paintings in chapels of the Czech Brethern Church. He writes poetry, drama, reflective prose and theological essays published in 22 volumes mostly illustrated by himself. In the period 1972 - 2016 he has held 26 solo exhibitons as well as 7 group exhibitions, mainly in Prague, Czech Republic. He has had two solo exhibitions in Germany: in Berlin in 1988 and in Bremen in 2012.

ArtWay Visual Meditation 23 September, 2018