2.2 Handcraft and development with a focus on the School of Leipzig
2.2.1 Neo Rauch
The student of Arno Rink, who actually grow bigger then Rink himself, goes by the name of Neo Rauch . Him and other painters from Leipzig are paragons for my 30 research about craftsmanship in painting and figuration. History wise but also the international approval by Neo Rauch is one important fact that underline my statement of the accordance of figurative painting in contemporary times.
“It’s more bittersweet, like the whole life. There’s a certain taste of the limitations of our lifetime, which makes me a little bit angry sometimes and also sad. But hopefully I’m able to turn these emotions into a nice chromaticity. A painting should always be more intelligent than the person who makes it. " 31
Rauch is one of the most important artists of his generation and is considered a pioneer of the New Leipzig School. 32 His colorful and mostly large-format paintings show an influence of socialist realism as well as pop art and comics. His works are often classified as surrealist, as they depict the opposites of the real and the surreal, as well as the reality and the imaginary. In this way, Rauch creates an ambiguity that makes his works familiar and strange at the same time. In the time of 2007, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art devotes a solo exhibition by the name para, which focuses on so-called parallel worlds or the contrast between reality and imagination. Rauch's works have so far been displayed in the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, in the Munich Pinakothek der Moderne, in the Max Ernst Museum in Brühl and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig. Rauch is considered the most prominent representative of the New Leipzig School. 33
Neo Rauch was born in Leipzig, Germany on the 18th of April 1960. From 1981 to 1986 he
30
studied painting at the Leipzig University of Graphics and Book Art under Arno Rink and from 1986 to 1990 as a master student of Bernhard Heisig. From 1993 to 1998 Rauch worked as Arno Rink's assistant at the Leipzig Academy. In 2005 he succeeds Rink as a professor at the Leipzig University of Graphics and Book Art, where he taught until the year of 2009.
RAUCH, Neo (2019) - Interview with Paul Laster, consulted at https://
31
www.conceptualfinearts.com/cfa/2019/07/05/neo-rauch-interview/
BEAUCAMP (2017), op.cit. p.153-155
32
RAUCH, Neo (2018) - Biography, consulted at
https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/neo-33
rauch/biography
“I never wanted to change the world, neither the order of things nor my fellow citizens’ perceptions of life. I always preferred to just let the world in all its complexity impress itself upon me. I’ve tried, and I’m still trying—via a precisely-aimed reach into the immeasurable flow of things—to perform a kind of bundling. This bundling then is the artwork. ” 34
In his industrial and natural landscapes, the spatial relationships are irregular, the proportions are dynamic and the figures are caught in stages of constant movement.
Rauch hesitates to describe his paintings as surrealistic. But he does recognize the influence of dreams and fantasy on his painting. He generally understands his work as a kind of balance between different extremes, including reality and the surreal. His paintings are also influenced by socialist realism and are reminiscent of the casual graphics from his youth in the GDR. But Rauch points out that he may be influenced by Social Realism in an unconscious way, due to his heritage in the GDR (German Democratic Republic), but proclaiming any style which is connected to Social Realism, he decidedly rejects.
“Realism, yes, but not Social Realism; even my teachers were no longer influenced by this style. Politics didn’t outweigh aesthetics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig when I went there. The director of our art school said that he would avoid the influence of the Communist Party on the student. We could develop our intentions in a peaceful atmosphere, where we could concentrate on having a good time. " 35
Mentioning Neo Rauch at this point of this essay is primarily because of his approach to painting and some cogitations he admitted in Interviews or in description papers. Focusing on his great attempt of figurative painting, the belonging techniques and the balance between the imaginary and the real are the main investigations in this chapter.
RAUCH, Neo (2014) - Interview by bombmagazine, consulted at https://bombmagazine.org/
34
articles/neo-rauch/
RAUCH (2014), op.cit. Consulted at https://www.conceptualfinearts.com/cfa/2019/07/05/
35
neo-rauch-interview/
“I wouldn’t describe myself as a draughtsman because drawing just happens for me. I’m a painter and I don’t use drawings for preparing paintings. I let ideas stream through my hand to my brush or my pencil and don’t think about what I do. There’s not much difference between the way I make drawings and how I paint. It’s almost the same. ” 36
The importance of painting itself and sort of `going through an process` of creation is very relevant to Neo Rauch. The practical execution is one of the connections to the body of work of Rauch. Even though he is gaining multiply recognition on the international art market, which in other cases doesn’t matter too much, he is a person who considers himself more as an blue-collar than an artist. His humble presence and intellectual way of speaking really connects certain structures of east german schooling and outcomes of the reunification. 37
Idem
36
BEAUCAMP (2017), op.cit. p, 153
37
Neo Rauch (1960 - ), Der Durchstich, 2017. Oil on
canvas, 300 x 250 cm, Leipzig, Gallery Eigen-Art Neo Rauch (1960 - ), Abendmesse, 2012. Oil on canvas, 300 x 250 cm, Private collection
“I hope it is. The way it appears makes me also wonder if it is. I ask myself, “where did this come from? Who advised me to do it in this way and not in another?” I could describe myself as a medium. Yes, I would go as far as to say I’m a medium, not a brain-guided artist. I’m a painter, not an artist. ” 38
2.3 Quote on narratives in painting