Neo Rauch | |
|---|---|
 Rauch in Brühl, Germany, 2007 | |
| Born | (1960-04-18)18 April 1960 (age 64) Leipzig,East Germany (now Germany) |
| Nationality | German |
| Education | Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | New Leipzig School |
| Awards | Vincent Award, 2002 |
Neo Rauch (German:[ˈneːoˈʁaʊx]; born 18 April 1960) is a Germanartist whose paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence ofsocialist realism, and owes a debt toSurrealistsGiorgio de Chirico andRené Magritte, although Rauch hesitates to align himself with surrealism. He studied at theHochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, and he lives inMarkkleeberg near Leipzig, Germany and works as the principal artist of theNew Leipzig School.[1] The artist is represented by Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin andDavid Zwirner, New York.
Rauch's paintings suggest a narrative intent but, as art historian Charlotte Mullins explains, closer scrutiny immediately presents the viewer with enigmas: "Architectural elements peter out; men in uniform from throughout history intimidate men and women from other centuries; great struggles occur but their reason is never apparent; styles change at a whim."[2]
Rauch's parents died in a train accident when he was four weeks old. His father Hanno Rauch was 21, his mother Helga Wand 19 years old - at the time both of them studied art at theHochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts).[3][4] Neo Rauch grew up with his grandparents inAschersleben and passed hisAbitur exam at the Thomas-Müntzer-Oberschule (now Gymnasium Stephaneum). He studied painting at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and then was Masterstudent with ProfessorArno Rink (1981–1986) and with Professor Bernhard Heisig (1986–1990). After the fall of theGDR Rauch worked from 1993 to 1998 as an assistant to Arno Rink and Sighard Gille at the Leipziger Akademie.[5]
In 2004, he was a selector forEASTinternational with Gerd Harry Lybke.[6]
From August 2005 until February 2009, he was Professor at the Leipziger Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst.[7] Together with Timm Rautert he was curator for the exhibit "Man muss sich beeilen, wenn man noch etwas sehen will..." ("One has to hurry, if one still wants to see something...") at Gut Selikum inNeuss.
Rauch works with his spouse and artist Rosa Loy at a former cotton-mill,Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, about which he says: "It is the location of concentration and inspiration. Here the best ideas come to me." With an estimated fortune of €100 million, he was ranked one of the richest 1,001 individuals and families in Germany by the monthly business publicationManager Magazin in 2017.[8]
Rauch is the subject of the 2016 filmNeo Rauch: Comrades and Companions, directed byNicola Graef.[9]
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In 1991 Neo Rauch had his first solo exhibition in the Leipzig Galerie amThomaskirchhof. In 1993, the Deputy Director of theMuseum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt,Rolf Lauter, discovered the artist‘s work and, thanks to the support of the Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung,[10] realized a first non-commercial presentation of his then latest works in the exhibition rooms ofDresdner Bank Frankfurt. In the catalog text, Lauter referred to Rauch‘s combinatorial principle of sampling, incorporating elements from art history, paraphrases of surrealism and metaphors of the banal everyday world.[11] Rauch won theVincent Award in 2002, which received a corresponding solo show at theBonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, The Netherlands, that same year.[12] In 2010, Rauch had his first museum retrospective, which was jointly held at theMuseum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig, Germany, and thePinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany. In 2011, a selection of the works from this retrospective then traveled to the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland. In 2007, the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague held a retrospective entitled "Neue Rollen," organized by theKunstmuseum Wolfsburg, of Rauch's works covering 13 years.[1]
Other solo exhibitions include the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada (2006); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany (2006); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Málaga, Spain (2005); and theAlbertina, Vienna, Austria (2004).[13] His work was featured at the 2005Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he had his first solo North American museum exhibition at theSaint Louis Art Museum inSt. Louis, Missouri in 2003-2004.[14] In 2013, he got his first Belgian solo exhibition at theCentre for Fine Arts inBrussels (Belgium), calledNeo Rauch. The Obsession of the Demiurge. Selected Works 1993-2012.[15]
In painting "Characteristic, suggestion and eternity" are important marks of quality.[16]
I view the process of painting as an extraordinarily natural form of discovering the world, almost natural as breathing. Outwardly it is almost entirely without intention. It is predominantly limited to the process of a concentrated flow. I am deliberately neglecting to contemplate all of the catalytic influences that would have the power to undermine the innocence of this approach because I would like to express a degree of clarity in these lines by way of example. I view myself as a kind of peristaltic filtration system in the river of time ...[17]
Rauch is considered to be part of theNew Leipzig School and his works are characterized by a style that depends on theSocial Realism of communism. Especially American critics prefer to recognize in his contemporary style a post communist Surrealism. But more than anyone Rauch is recognized as an East-West painter. Rauch merges the modern myths of both theWarsaw Pact and the Western world. His figures are portrayed in a landscape in which an American Comic-Aestheticism meets theSocial Realism of communism. In the art publicationTexte zur Kunst (Texts about Art, number 55), he was defined as an example for a new German neo-conservatism.
In the US,Roberta Smith, art critic for theNew York Times, called attention to Rauch's work in 2002 with an article about the "painter who came in from the cold."[18] In 2007, Rauch painted a series of works especially for a solo exhibition in the mezzanine of the modern art wing at theMetropolitan Museum inNew York City. This special exhibition was called "Para." Rauch explains that he enjoys the associations the word "para" evokes in his own mind, and says that his works at "Para" have no particular intention, but that they could signify anything to anyone.
When I first agreed to do the Met exhibition, I thought about a way of working that would be about the nature of a museum. But straight away I realized that I was much more interested in those "visions from the Witches Circle" in my studio than I was in coming up with things in a purely thematic way. Calling them "visions" reflects my personality—they precede inspiration and spring from the moment when internal images appear at the prompting of intellectual decisions. I have no choice but to accept everything that I discover in this way.[1]
Works for "Para":
The works created for "Para" are characterized by three elements: a pre-communist civic-mindedness, communistSocial Realism, and an idealized countryside. On the other hand, it's a prefix which evokes associations likepara-normal,para-dox orpara-noia.
It may be read in a system connection, for example a picture likeParanoia reflects the cognitions theory in a hermetic room.[citation needed]
Leipzig, Rauch's city of birth, is known historically as a city of trade through its association with theLeipzig Trade Fair. This civic-mindedness of a trader's city also expressed itself under communism where Leipzig was the center of popular resistance that led toDie Wende. Rauch uses characters and images of life of pre-communist civil society that was oppressed by communism in theGDR. The oppression of communism and the total control of civic life under the rule of communist ideology is one of the elements of Rauch's work. The destructive powers of ideologies is perhaps the reason why Rauch refuses to interpret his own work as a powerful statement in favor of a cultural relativism that characterized the civic bourgeois thought that was destroyed.
Rauch most expensive painting at the art market wasPlatz (Square) (2000), who sold by £1,058,500 ($1,761,231) atChristie'sLondon, on 13 February 2014.[19][20]
Works by the artist are held, among others, in the following public collections:
