KLAUS WEHNER

Imagery depicting the Last Judgement has always fascinated me. Visually, these images appeal to my love for 'Wimmelbilder' – busy images that are brimming with detail (such as also the fantastic images of Hieronymus Bosch, which I adore).

In terms of subject matter and also the role of art, I am intrigued by the contrast between the bedazzling beauty and the apparent artistic skill of such works, which yet can ultimately be seen as having been employed as a means of manifold repression: The threat of eternal suffering after death to control the behaviour of the living. The Memling triptych is particularly clear in this through its depiction of St Michael with his 'Soul Scales' that will show infallibly which way the poor soul –reunited with its resurrected body– will be going from here...