Neo Rauch (; born 18 April 1960) is a German

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

whose paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence of socialist realism, and owes a debt to Surrealists Giorgio de Chirico and

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgium, Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature ...

, although Rauch hesitates to align himself with surrealism. He studied at the

Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig The Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) or Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig is one of the oldest art schools in Germany, dating back to 1764. The academy has four colleges specializing in fine arts, graphic design, photography and new media ar ...

, and he lives in Markkleeberg near Leipzig, Germany and works as the principal artist of the

New Leipzig School The New Leipzig School () is a movement in German painting, centred in the city of Leipzig after the German reunification. The usage and origins of this term are debated. History and characteristics The Leipzig School (painting), Alte Leipziger S ...

. The artist is represented by Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin and

David Zwirner David Zwirner (born October 23, 1964) is a German art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, and Paris. His gallery represents over seventy artists. Early life and education Zwirner wa ...

, 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."

Life

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 the

(Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts). Neo Rauch grew up with his grandparents in Aschersleben and passed his ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

'' 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 Professor Arno Rink (1981–1986) and with Professor Bernhard Heisig (1986–1990). After the fall of the GDR Rauch worked from 1993 to 1998 as an assistant to Arno Rink and Sighard Gille at the Leipziger Akademie. In 2004, he was a selector for EASTinternational with Gerd Harry Lybke. From August 2005 until February 2009, he was Professor at the Leipziger Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst. 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 in

Neuss Neuss (; written ''Neuß'' until 1968; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It is primarily known for its ...

. 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 publication ''

Manager Magazin ''Manager Magazin'' (stylized as ''manager magazin'') is a German monthly business magazine focusing on business, finance and management based in Hamburg. History and profile ''Manager Magazin'' was first published on 1 November 1971. It is ...

'' in 2017. Rauch is the subject of the 2016 film '' Neo Rauch: Comrades and Companions'', directed by Nicola Graef.

Exhibitions

In 1991 Neo Rauch had his first solo exhibition in the Leipzig Galerie am Thomaskirchhof. In 1993, the Deputy Director of the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Rolf Lauter, discovered the artist‘s work and, thanks to the support of the Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung, realized a first non-commercial presentation of his then latest works in the exhibition rooms of

Dresdner Bank Dresdner Bank AG () was a German bank, founded in 1872 in Dresden, then headquartered in Berlin from 1884 to 1945 and in Frankfurt from 1963 onwards after a postwar hiatus. Long Germany's second-largest bank behind Deutsche Bank, it was eventually ...

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. Rauch won the

Vincent Award The Vincent Award was a Dutch prize awarded to a European artist whose works were deemed highly relevant in contemporary art. The award was awarded every two years in the Netherlands from the year 2000 to 2014. Five artists were nominated, and the ...

in 2002, which received a corresponding solo show at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht, The Netherlands, that same year. In 2010, Rauch had his first museum retrospective, which was jointly held at the

Museum der bildenden Künste The Museum der bildenden Künste (German: "Museum of Fine Arts") is a museum in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It covers artworks from the Late Middle Ages to Modernity. History Museum Foundation and First Museum The museum dates back to the f ...

in Leipzig, Germany, and the

Pinakothek der Moderne The Pinakothek der Moderne (, '' Pinakothek of the Modern'') is a modern art museum, situated in central Munich's '' Kunstareal''. The building Designed by German architect Stephan Braunfels, the Pinakothek der Moderne was inaugurated in Se ...

, 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 the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, of Rauch's works covering 13 years. 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 the Albertina, Vienna, Austria (2004). His work was featured at the 2005 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he had his first solo North American museum exhibition at the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

in 2003-2004. In 2013, he got his first Belgian solo exhibition at the Centre for Fine Arts in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

(

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

), called ''Neo Rauch. The Obsession of the Demiurge. Selected Works 1993-2012''.

Works

In painting "Characteristic, suggestion and eternity" are important marks of quality. Rauch is considered to be part of the

and his works are characterized by a style that depends on the

Social Realism Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

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 the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

and the Western world. His figures are portrayed in a landscape in which an American Comic-Aestheticism meets the

of communism. In the art publication '' Texte 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 the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', called attention to Rauch's work in 2002 with an article about the "painter who came in from the cold." In 2007, Rauch painted a series of works especially for a solo exhibition in the mezzanine of the modern art wing at the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. 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.

Para

Works for "Para": * ''Jagdzimmer'' (Hunter's room), 2007 * ''Vater'' (Father), 2007 * ''Die Fuge'' (The Fugue/The Gap), 2007 * ''Warten auf die Barbaren'' (Waiting for the Barbarians), 2007 * ''Para'', 2007 * ''Paranoia'', 2007 * ''Goldgrube'' (Gold Mine), 2007 * ''Vorort'' (Suburb), 2007 * ''Der nächste Zug'' (The Next Move/The Next Draw), 2007 * ''Die Flamme'' (The Flame), 2007 The works created for "Para" are characterized by three elements: a pre-communist civic-mindedness, communist

, and an idealized countryside. On the other hand, it's a prefix which evokes associations like ''para-normal'', ''para-dox'' or ''para-noia''.
It may be read in a system connection, for example a picture like ''Paranoia'' reflects the cognitions theory in a hermetic room. Leipzig, Rauch's city of birth, is known historically as a city of trade through its association with the Leipzig 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 to

Die Wende The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

. Rauch uses characters and images of life of pre-communist civil society that was oppressed by communism in the GDR. 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.

Art market

Rauch most expensive painting at the art market was ''Platz'' (''Square'') (2000), who sold by £1,058,500 ($1,761,231) at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, on 13 February 2014.

Awards

* 1992 Renta-Preis 1992,

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

* 1997 Kunstpreis der Leipziger Volkszeitung,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

* 2002

, Bonnefanten Museum

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

, Netherlands * 2005 Kunstpreis Finkenwerder * 2010 Stiftungspreis der ökumenischen ''Stiftung Bibel und Kultur 2010,''

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

* 2012 Order of Merit of Saxony-Anhalt * 2018 Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany - Grand Cross 1st Class

Public collections

Works by the artist are held, among others, in the following public collections: * Bonnefantenmuseum,

The Broad The Broad () is a contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue (Los Angeles), Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The museum is named for philanthropists Eli Broad, Eli and Edythe Broad, who financed the $140 million building that houses the Broad ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

* Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

* Hamburger Kunsthalle,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Kunstmuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

* Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg * Museum de Fundatie,

Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...

* Museum of Contemporary Art,

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York *

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

* Stedelijk Museum AmsterdamNeo Rauch biography
/ref>

Notes

Sources

* Lauter, Rolf (1993). ''Neo Rauch oder die Suche nach den Ursprüngen der Malerei in der Gegenwart'', Jürgen Ponto-Stiftung, Dresdner Bank AG, Frankfurt am Main, September - November 1993. OCLC 921140932

* * Mullins, Charlotte (2006). ''Painting People: figure painting today''. New York: D.A.P.

External links

Neo Rauch at David Zwirner

Selected Press at David Zwirner

* Sophie Vogt,

" ''MuseumZeitraum Leipzig'', August 19, 2009

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060418070836/http://www.eigen-art.com/Kuenstlerseiten/Neo_Rauch/Neo_Rauch_EN.html Galerie Eigen + Art
Neo Rauch at artfacts.net

Neo Rauch biography - Carnegie International
archived from th
original
on February 28, 2013
Homepage Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei
* Sigrun Hellmich,

(translated from the German), Goethe-Institut, May 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rauch, Neo 1960 births Living people Academic staff of the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig People from Markkleeberg People from Bezirk Leipzig 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters 21st-century German painters 21st-century German male artists German contemporary artists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany