Neo Rauch

Born in 1960, acclaimed German painter Neo Rauch blends the iconography of Socialist Realism with the stylistic mannerisms of the Baroque and Romantic past. Influenced by his art-school training in GDR-era Leipzig, his paintings respond to that of Leipzig School forebears such as Max Klinger, Bernard Heisig and Rauch's teacher Arno Rink.

Rauch’s compositions and their enigmatic figures are rich with reference and allusion, but the stories they tell are indistinct and somehow out of time. They have an ancient modernity – or the freshness of renewed antiquity.

This month we published a comprehensive monograph that offers a detailed examination of the paintings of the acclaimed German painter.

Part of our Contemporary Painters series, this book written by Michael Glover, discloses Rauch’s working methods, revealing how the artist approaches the making of his work, how his images come into being, and the importance of words and their etymology to the creation or disruption of an artwork. These are works that interrogate the very meaning of the artistic impulse; ruminations in the guise of history painting that in fact question what a painter could and should be creating at this particular historical moment.

An exhibition of Neo Rauch and his wife Rosa Loy’s work is also currently on display at The Grafikstiftung Neo Rauch in Leipzig. The pair have lived in the German city for over 30 years where their private and artistic lives are inseparably connected together.

Propaganda, an exhibition of new paintings by German artist Neo Rauch, is set to open on March 26 at David Zwirner. On view at the gallery’s Hong Kong location, this exhibition marks the artist’s debut solo presentation in China and will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring a short story by Daniel Kehlmann.

If you are interested our Contemporary Painters Series  and would like more information on the books in the series or events and exhibitions happening around the series please visit www.lhartbooks.com