Jacques-Richard Chery - Wall hanging

Wall towel Jacques-Richard Chery
“ Hunger Miserable or Tuch “
Canvas size 122cm/82cm, print size 70cm/98cm.
Silkscreen on linen.
The canvas is completely intact. The colours are magnificent.

A hunger cloth was hung in front of the altar during Lent. This way, people were not distracted by the splendor of the altar during the sober time of Lent.
This is the third hunger cloth that the German development organization Misereor had made. The original size, large 180×0×268 cm was intended for churches and parishes. Smaller versions were also printed, of which this is one.
The German development organization Misereor had this hunger cloth made by a "southern" artist, Jacques-Richard from Haiti.
It is considered the best of all hunger cloths to date and is also seen as Chéry's magnum opus, at the crossroads of his earlier traditional style and his later more comic style with caricatural application of the figures. His work is considered to belong to primitivism, comparable to the (Tahitian) work of Gauguin.
In nine fragments on three levels, Chéry translates how his compatriots experience a number of stories from the Bible.
The special thing about this Hunger Cloth is the fusion of a double reality: the message of the Bible and the world as it was experienced in Haiti in the early eighties. Violence, oppression and armament are opposed to the biblical utopia of hope, life and expectation. He painted the biblical world as it is . The most striking is the suffering Christ on the tree of life. Jesus is also present in five other scenes, recognizable by his orange-red robe. He suffers with people, shows them the way and sits at the table with them. The cloth contains nine scenes. The bottom blue strip introduces us to (boat) refugees, to war and greed. That strip refers to hellish matters and the not so rosy situation in which the world and Haiti in particular find themselves. In the middle light green strip Jesus is central as a teacher and redeemer who gives hope and brings liberation. The upper light yellow strip refers to heavenly, to good values, human rights, the happiness of the earthly paradise and of sharing at the world table. And all of that takes place under the rainbow, symbol of the covenant of God with his people.