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Neo Rauch
Rauch neo bruehl maxernstmuseum 281007 06.jpg
Rauch in Brühl, Germany, 2007
Born (1960-04-18) 18 April 1960 (age 65)
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 (born April 18, 1960) is a famous German artist. His paintings often mix his own life story with ideas about factories and work. His art shows influences from a style called socialist realism. He also learned from Surrealists like Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte, even though he doesn't fully call himself a surrealist.

Neo Rauch studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, an art school in Leipzig, Germany. He lives near Leipzig and is a main artist of the New Leipzig School.

About Neo Rauch's Life

Neo Rauch had a very sad start to his life. His parents died in a train accident when he was only four weeks old. His father, Hanno Rauch, was 21, and his mother, Helga Wand, was 19. Both were art students at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts.

Neo Rauch grew up with his grandparents in a town called Aschersleben. He later studied painting at the same art school his parents attended. He learned from important professors like Arno Rink and Bernhard Heisig. After East Germany changed, Rauch worked as an assistant at the Leipzig Academy for several years.

From 2005 to 2009, he was a professor at the Leipzig Academy. He also helped organize art shows.

Rauch works in a large building that used to be a cotton factory, called Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei. He says this place helps him focus and get new ideas. A film about him, called Neo Rauch: Comrades and Companions, was made in 2016.

Art Exhibitions

Výstava "Neo Rauch- Neue Rollen" (Galerie Rudolfinum, 2007)
Exhibition at Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, 2007

Neo Rauch had his first solo art show in 1991 in Leipzig. In 1993, a museum director named Rolf Lauter noticed his work. He helped Rauch show his art in Frankfurt. Lauter said that Rauch's art mixes elements from art history, surrealism, and everyday life.

In 2002, Rauch won the Vincent Award, a special art prize. This led to a solo show of his work in the Netherlands. In 2010, he had his first big museum shows in Leipzig and Munich, Germany. Some of these works later traveled to Warsaw, Poland, in 2011.

In 2007, a show called "Neue Rollen" displayed 13 years of Rauch's art in Prague. He has also had solo exhibitions in many other places. These include Montreal, Canada (2006), Wolfsburg, Germany (2006), Málaga, Spain (2005), and Vienna, Austria (2004). His art was also shown at the 2005 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, USA. His first solo museum show in North America was in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2003-2004. In 2013, he had his first show in Belgium, called Neo Rauch. The Obsession of the Demiurge. Selected Works 1993-2012.

Neo Rauch's Art Style

Neo Rauch is known for being part of the New Leipzig School of art. His paintings often use a style similar to Social Realism, which was common in communist countries. Some art critics, especially in America, see his work as a modern kind of post-communist Surrealism.

Rauch is often called an "East-West painter." This means his art combines ideas from both the communist Warsaw Pact countries and the Western world. His paintings show people in scenes where American comic book styles meet the serious look of communist art.

In 2007, Rauch created a special series of paintings for an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. This show was called "Para." Rauch said he liked the different meanings the word "para" could have. He explained that his works in "Para" didn't have one specific meaning. Instead, they could mean different things to different people.

He said that his paintings come from "visions" or internal images that appear to him. He feels he has to accept whatever he discovers through this process.

The "Para" Series

'Paranoia', oil on canvas painting by Neo Rauch, 2007
Paranoia, oil on canvas painting by Neo Rauch, 2007

Here are some of the paintings from the "Para" series:

  • 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 "Para" paintings often show three main ideas:

  • Life before communism.
  • Social Realism from the communist era.
  • An idealized countryside.

The word "para" itself can make you think of words like para-normal, para-dox, or para-noia. For example, a painting like Paranoia might show ideas about how we understand things in a closed-off space.

Leipzig, where Rauch was born, has a long history as a trading city. Even under communism, Leipzig was a center for people who resisted the government. This resistance led to big changes in East Germany. Rauch uses characters and images from the everyday life of people before communism. He shows how this way of life was controlled and changed by communist ideas in the GDR. The way ideologies can destroy things is a big theme in Rauch's work.

Awards and Recognition

Neo Rauch has received many awards for his art:

Where to See His Art

Neo Rauch's paintings are in many public art collections around the world, including:

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Neo Rauch para niños

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