Annual exhibition Stiftmuseum Klosterneuburg 26 April to 18 November 2018 "On Living, Dying and the Search for God".
Photo: Prelate Bernhard Backovsky Can.Reg., Provost of Klosterneuburg Abbey and Eva Kaiser
In the background, the large-format painting by Eva Kaiser "der Gedanke" from the Klosterneuburg Abbey Collection.
Image interpretation:
The image can be read both Christianly and quite neutrally. You can equate the "thought" with the "Spirit of God", but you don't have to.
On the right edge of the picture, two figures are recognisable, one has raised his hands in the manner in which the priest raises the host at mass. He is now receiving the Spirit of God from above - or the "thought". A group of people moves towards these two marginal figures in the manner of a procession. All of them are searching for the thought. The persons show different postures, which can be interpreted as humility, despondency, thoughtfulness, interest and joyful expectation up to indifference. One figure has his hands clasped in front of his face in despair and is apparently seeking comfort and advice from the priest. Two people are in conversation. One is holding a book. Since thought, according to you, carries becoming, being and passing away, the groups of figures represent life and are spanned by thought. A figure on the far left (in burning red) turns away. She is still searching, she does not yet know where to find the thought. Perhaps she will never find it.
The thought would therefore also be equivalent to the "breath of life".
Curator MMag. Wolfgang Huber
