Near Selinunte, 1978

About the Work

Tübke’s favourite travel destinations were history-steeped Greece, the Balkans, and Italy. In this scene, he peopled the temple ruins of Selinunte on the south coast of Sicily with wraithlike figures performing a burnt offering. The signs in the sky are ones the artist had seen on graves: The phi stands for phos (light), the entwined alpha and omega for Christ as the beginning and the end, and the beta for ‘Basileus’ (Christ the King).