Neo Rauch at Bötzow

“I’m here today with my favourite artist and my favourite art!” These were the opening words spoken by Professor Hans Georg Näder (HGN) at the vernissage for the Neo Rauch exhibition that opened on 10 September 2015 in the studio building on the Bötzow site. As always, the audience at the vernissage consisted of a colourful mix of people. Some 160 guests – including numerous prominent individuals from industry, politics and culture – were present as Professor Näder explained how he bought his first painting by Neo Rauch just five years previously. He then went on to build up the highly representative collection of Neo Rauch’s work, which was on view until April 2016.

Rauch pioneered the New Leipzig School. His paintings are generally large-scale, laden with tension and use powerful, intense colours. “Die Fuhre” (2013), for example, is based entirely on the three primary colours red, yellow and blue in various shades. Rauch combines contrasts, sometimes with contradictory fragments of ideas and images, to create a richly deep narrative. In some paintings – such as “Der Chor” (2011) – contradictory proportions trigger emotions and remind the observer forcefully of how significance was equated with size in the Middle Ages. Rauch describes painting as a “continuation of a dream in a different medium”. Fragments of reality are pushed into new contexts and encrypted. His “Die Fuhre” painting also includes hybrids of humans and animals.

Pictures: © FTWild