Die Geld-Schein-Heiligen
The Money Saints

2001
Acrylic on canvas, mounted on wood
158 x 127 cm
Private Collection

After Alfred Dürer’s “The Four Apostles” (1526) – Mathias Waske loved great masters and they would have loved him. Dürer’s last great painterly work “The Four Apostles” is his forceful commentary on the politics of art and religion, with which he actively advocated the new ideals of the Reformation, the inviolable authority of God’s Word, but also art.
The larger than life figures of the original express calm on the left: John and Peter are studying the open Bible, Peter is holding a key, the symbol of power, firmly in his hand. In the right picture, eagerness dominates the scene. The book is closed, now the eyes of anger speak, and they herald a gloomy future. Dürer’s admonition is clear, he wants to warn against malefic teachers.
Mathias Waske replaced the attributes of the saints with banknotes that overflow from a Louis Vuitton bag in the right half of the picture. Waske skillfully admonishes the ethical and moral decay of our money and consumption-oriented society and capitalist depravity.

Illustrated in:
Coursebooks Ethics/Philosophy: Introduction to Philosophy, Paperback – 1 January 2004.
by Prof. Dr. Barbara Brüning (editor, author), Dr. Eva-Maria Sewing (editor, author), Monika Sahre (author)
ISBN-10 : 3464650545
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3464650545