Bodenskulptur und Tympanontexte für St. Peter / Ground Sculpture and Tympanum Text for St. Peter

Sculptor Ulrich Rückriem is famous for his massive granite sculptures which take the stone seriously, bring it out as a natural material, and redefine their surrounding space by their force. Which makes the work created by the artist for the Recklinghausen Provost Church St. Peter all the more astonishing: In 2002, he designed the entrance portals of the west tower and to the north with inscriptions on the tympanum and a ground sculpture in front of the entrance in the tower.
Each of the two simple sandstone tympana is inscribed with a single biblical quotation referring to the apostle Peter that leaves the major part of their surface empty. The ground sculpture is located at some distance to the portal, flush with the paving of the forecourt. A granite slab the size of the portal was embedded in the ground here. As is characteristic of Rückriem’s sculptures, the slab was divided into smaller segments but re-assembled in its original form, leaving the drill holes and lines between the individual segments visible. This divides the great slab into four rows. The upper quarter has been left whole, while the three lower rows, each divided into four sections, yield twelve sections, corresponding to the number of apostles.